TODAY VENEZUEAL, Caracas – The Venezuelan Government today accused Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos of violating peace in South America by promoting military cooperation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Venezuela expresses its deep concern about and rejection of the beginning of negotiations between Colombia and NATO, according to a statement published on the official website of the Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Santos said on December 23rd that NATO had accepted the request of his Government to start talks prior to the establishment of an agreement, with the purpose of establishing cooperation in the field of information exchange and the fight against organized crime.

The announcement breaks the pledge Santos made in 2010, in front of President Hugo Chavez (1954-2013), not to make a military alliance with NATO, the text added.

It further states that in initiating negotiations with NATO, Colombia ‘violates the principles of Bandung that gave rise to the Non-Aligned Movement,’ which expressly ‘prohibits its member states from forming military alliances.’The statement ensures that Venezuela will use the diplomatic and political tools within its power, to prevent war organizations with a pernicious record of war and violence in the world, to disrupt Latin American peace.

The Government of President Nicolás Maduro also urges his Colombian counterpart not to generate destabilization and war ‘for the sake of union and integration of the Patria Grande’.

This article originally appeared on Prensa Latina

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