Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro will “soon” meet his Colombian counterpart Nicolas Maduro who will hand over evidence of an alleged conspiracy to overthrow the Venezuelan government from the neighboring country.
According to Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jaua, “in the coming meeting there will be between President Santos and President Maduro we will hand over the evidence of this conspiracy from Bogtoa against Venezuela.”
The minister said no date has been set for a bilateral meeting, but both leaders “are willing to meet.”
The conspiracy was first alleged following a meeting between Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles and Santos last month.
The exact nature of the alleged conspiracy and the alleged conspirators are unclear as the Venezuelan government has failed to release the alleged evidence.
In public speeches regarding the subject, Venezuelan officials have only said the opposition of that country is trying to overthrow the government and that the lives of top officials and members of the military were under threat.
A former minister under late President Hugo Chavez and close ally of Maduro went as far as claiming that the country’s opposition had acquired fighter jets in the United States that would attack Venezuela from a US base on Colombian soil. However, the given coordinates of the US base corresponded to a river bed less than a mile off the Venezuelan border.
MORE: Venezuela’s opposition plans to base 18 war planes in Colombia: Maduro ally
According to Maduro, the threat is s serious his country is considering withdrawing its support for peace talks between Colombian rebel group FARC and the government.
MORE: Maduro ‘lost confidence’ in Santos after ‘stab in the back’
While the Venezuelan government has frequently gone public with its accusations, Colombia has for the most part refused to respond and said it would stem the Venezuelan unrest through diplomatic channels.
However, Santos did call the possibility of a Bogota-coordinated “ridiculous” while Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin assured that Maduro had been informed of the upcoming meeting with Capriles beforehand.
MORE: Claims Colombia wants to destabilize Venezuela ‘ridiculous’: Santos
MORE: Colombia told Venezuela beforehand about Capriles visit: Foreign minister
Venezuela has not spoken this harshly about its neighbor since Santos took office in August 2010 and made the improvement of the relationship between the two countries a top priority. Before Santos assumed power, Venezuela had frozen relations in 2010 over accusations by Uribe, who accused the Chavez administration of aiding the FARC.
