CARACAS, February 11. /TASS/. Deputy president of Venezuela’s National Constituent Assembly Tania Diaz has warned that a potential conflict between Venezuela and Colombia the United States is trying to provoke would harm the interests of both countries.
"The strategy of the United States and Colombian oligarchs is to set the two countries against each other," said Diaz, deputy leader of the United Socialist Party. "Both the people of Colombia and Venezuela would fall victim, while hegemonistic interests will gain the upper hand."
"It is hard to say how real the risk of a military confrontation with Colombia and the United States is," Diaz said. "I’m not a military specialist. I can merely say that the current speculations (about the inevitability of military intervention in Venezuela - TASS) have nothing to do with the reality."
"Venezuela’s political voice is being suppressed by censorship. The voices of part of Colombia’s people - those of the poor and insurgent - do not get into the mass media, either," Diaz said. "Colombia has experienced 60 years of war. A fragile peace treaty (between the authorities and the rebel group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - TASS) was signed just recently."
These factors make themselves felt in the domestic policies of Colombia, whose government "is unable to give a normal life to its compatriots returning home due to the crisis in Venezuela."
"The benefits and social insurance they have enjoyed in Venezuela, including free education, medical assistance, electricity and water supply - all that was financed by the government," Diaz said. "In Colombia all this is very costly. This is a reason to say that a latent social crisis is afoot there.".