Colombia works with other countries in a body that replaces Unasur: Duque

Colombia works with other countries to create a bloc that coordinates the defense of democracy in South America and that would be called Prosur, said president Iván Duque on Monday, who proposed as a substitute for the Unasur group, which he considered an accomplice of the political situation of Venezuela.

The announcement of Duque comes at a time when the countries of the region are lined up against the government of the socialist Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, who last week took office as president for a new six-year term.

"We have gone on in conversations with several Latin American presidents for Unasur to come to an end and rather start building a much more agile, less bureaucratic, more coordinated and cooperative phase," Duque said in an interview. with a local radio.

"With the president of Chile, Sebastián Piñera, we are advancing in this direction of Unasur and the creation of Prosur, which more than a bureaucratic organization or at the service of a particular government, is a mechanism of South American coordination of public policies, in defense of democracy, the independence of powers, the economy of markets, "he added.

Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Peru announced last year the indefinite suspension of their participation in the Union of South American Nations (Unasur), created a decade ago to counteract US influence in the region, while Colombia was more there and decided to withdraw from the blockade.

"It is very important that this institution that was a regular part of Venezuela's dictatorship is over," Duque said.

At the beginning of January, in a declaration of the countries that make up the Lima group, they anticipated that they did not recognize Maduro's new mandate, considering that the election was illegitimate, a decision that the Mexican government presided over from the left. Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

The crisis in Venezuela has led to the exodus of over three million Venezuelans in recent years, of which more than half in Colombia, according to the International Organization for Migration and the United Nations High Commissioner for refugees. (UNHCR).