Colombia & Venezuela: Brother Nations Reunite

EPISODE: Colombia & Venezuela, Brother Nations Reunite


GUEST: Daniel Kovalik


Dan is an American lawyer and Human Rights advocate who currently
teaches International Human Rights at the University of
Pittsburgh School of Law. From 1993 until 2019 he served as
in-house counsel for the United Steelworkers, AFL-CIO. While
with the USW, he worked on Alien Tort Claims Act cases against
The Coca-Cola Company, Drummond and Occidental Petroleum – cases
arising out of egregious human rights abuses in
Colombia. Dan is the recipient of the David W. Mills
Mentoring Fellowship from Stanford University School of Law as
well as the Project Censored Award for his article exposing the
unprecedented killing of trade unionists in Colombia,


He has written extensively on the issue of international human
rights and U.S. foreign policy including several books of which
is “The Plot To Overthrow Venezuela, How The US Is
Orchestrating a Coup for Oil”


Dan is also a Senior Research Fellow with The Council on
Hemispheric Affairs which is a broadcast partner of this program


BACKGROUND


Colombian President Gustavo Petro and Venezuelan President
Nicolás Maduro met in Venezuela’s capital Caracas on Tuesday,
November 1, two months after formally re-establishing diplomatic
relations and a month after resuming trade between the two
neighboring countries. (3 months after the inauguration)


This was the first time that Petro and Maduro met since the
mending of bilateral relations in late August. It was a historic
meeting as it marked the further strengthening of
the diplomatic ties between Colombia and Venezuela, which
got increasingly worse with the intensification of attacks
against Venezuela by the US and the support this campaign
received by then far-right Colombian president Iván Duque.


Colombia and Venezuela officially broke diplomatic relations in
February 2019 after Duque recognized the US-backed
self-proclaimed “president” Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s legitimate
leader.


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ADDITIONAL LINKS


The Plot to Overthrow Venezuela, How the US is Orchestrating a
Coup for Oil


War and Human Rights Abuses: Colombia & the Corporate Support
for Anti-Union Suppression 


La Carga Historica y Politica del Ecuentro entre Petro y Maduro





WTF is Going on in Latin America & the Caribbean is
a Popular Resistance broadcast in partnership
with CODEPINK, Common Frontiers, Council on
Hemispheric Affairs, Friends of Latin
America, InterReligious Task Force on Central
America, Massachusetts Peace Action and Task Force
on the Americas.