BOGOTA, Dec 10, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Colombian President Gustavo Petro called Wednesday for a general amnesty paving the way for a transitional government in neighboring Venezuela.

He made the call on the same day that Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Petro said President Nicolas Maduro "must accept that the response to external aggression is not just military readiness but a democratic revolution."

He added that the best way for a country to defend itself was "with more democracy," not "more repression."

Petro, Colombia's first-ever leftist president, has pushed for a peaceful resolution to the political crisis in neighboring Venezuela which reached fever pitch with Maduro's claim to a third presidential term last year, rejected by much of the international community.

Maduro rival and Machado stand-in Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia won by a July 2024 election by a landslide according to the opposition's own count in the absence of an official public tally.

Gonzalez Urrutia went into exile and Machado lives in hiding in Venezuela.

"The problem in Venezuela is democracy, and it's time for a general amnesty and a transitional government that includes everyone," Petro wrote on X Wednesday.

Petro has criticized a US military deployment within striking distance of Venezuela -- which Maduro believes is aimed at toppling him.

President Donald Trump has, without providing evidence, has accused Petro of being involved in drug trafficking and has hit the Colombian leader and his family with financial sanctions.