Given this fact, the ambassador tries to deny the evidence of the conversations between the two, in which a possible agreement is indicated under the table around the campaign of the current President and the policy that was managed at the request of Nicolás Maduro and his regime.
“Today I ask: why does this part of one of the conversations not appear? Because the audios are edited, manipulated and timeless fragments. It is important to clarify that all the conversations were so absurd that I never spoke to President Petro about her and her subject, neither in private, nor by phone, nor by any means. I always acted along with her to avoid confrontation with her and there are witnesses to all of this. “No agreement was made with Mrs. Merlano in exchange for anything, neither during the campaign, nor later,” Benedetti began by saying through his X account.
These clarifications by the current ambassador to the FAO contradict the words that he himself told him with certainty during the conversation he had with Aida Merlano, all of this according to what Semana revealed.
Furthermore, the ambassador clarifies that “The meeting takes place at her insistence.”. And that he, according to her words, “due to the painful situation he was in, I agreed to receive her. However, what is known Today he confirms to me that it was an ambush to obtain an illegal and manipulated recording”.
Given this order of ideas, the ambassador mentioned how the meeting with the former congresswoman was held, of which he noted that Merlano attended accompanied by a general appointed by the Venezuelan authorities in charge of her detention and custody.
Furthermore, he clarified that “Strangely, the audios also do not show the part in the conversation in which I clarified to Mrs. Merlano that her requests were not among my duties as Ambassador.. “I was just going along with it.”
Finally, he assured that “as Ambassador, for not being part of my duties, I was always isolated in the conversations and events between the two governments in the Merlano case and I found out about his deportation through the media, as understood in the recordings.”
