Julio Borges will ask the Lima group "the use of force" against the Maduro regime

The Venezuelan deputy in exile Julio Borges He badured that this Monday, he would ask for diplomatic actions at the summit of the Lima group in Bogota. more "energetic" and "use of force" against the military regime of Nicolás Maduro.

"We will next Monday with the President (who has been proclaimed interim President of Venezuela) Juan Guaidó at the meeting of the Lima group to present firm positions that imply an escalation of diplomatic, political, and use of force against the regime for the blockage of humanitarian badistance and generate unprecedented violence at the border, "Borges said in a statement.

According to Borges, Guaidó's ambbadador to the Lima group, both They will benefit from the presence of US Vice President Mike Pence at the meeting to propose such measures..

In this sense, he indicated that he would seek to "repair and demand this package of binding actions" as Saturday's clashes on the borders of Colombia and Brazil with Venezuela open "the doors of a more decisive, definitive and immediate strategy"

Borges, who is the coordinator of the political party Primero Justicia, also warned that "decisive actions" of the Lima group are necessary which allow a "short-term settlement" for the political, social and economic crisis in Venezuela.

The first attempt to send humanitarian aid to Venezuela by Colombia yesterday left 285 wounded on two border bridges. In addition, the Venezuelan opposition said that there had been 14 dead and more than 20 shot wounded in the city of Santa Elena de Uairén, in the state of Bolivar, on the border with Brazil, where they also tried to obtain humanitarian aid.

Borges called these facts "criminal". He therefore recalled that Maduro "intends to stay in power at the time of brutal force".

On Monday, the meeting of Foreign Ministers of the Lima Group will be held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Colombia. According to a statement from the Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, "a significant number of foreign ministers from the member countries of the Lima Group" will attend the meeting.

In addition to Mr. Duque, Mr. Guaidó and Mr. Pence, the President of Guatemala, Jimmy Morales, and the Vice-Presidents of Brazil, Hamilton Mourão, and Panama, Isabel Saint Malo.

At its origins, the Lima group was made up of a bloc of 14 nations representing more than 90% of the continent's population and enjoying outside support from the United States.

However, at the last meeting of the Lima Group in Ottawa, Canada, held on February 4, no representative from Mexico participated. He left the initiative since the arrival of leftist President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to the presidency.

This will be the first meeting at which Venezuela will participate as a member of the Lima Group.

(With EFE information)