Nicolas Maduro's days as president of crisis-ravaged Venezuela are numbered, his outgoing Colombian counterpart Juan Manuel Santos has said.
"I can see it happening in the near future," said Santos, pointing to the International Monetary Fund's latest projection that Venezuela's inflation will hit one million percent this year.
"A country with the level of inflation that Venezuela has... that regime has to fall." Relations between the two heads of state have been tense for years with Maduro describing Colombia as a US "lackey" and Santos predicting imminent "regime change" in Venezuela ahead of presidential elections in May, won by Maduro but that were boycotted by the opposition.
Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have flooded into Colombia as they flee food and medicine shortages, as well as failing public services in their crisis-torn country.
Venezuela has been gripped by a four-year long recession which Maduro blames on opposition "sabotage." He also disputed a claim by a group of leading Venezuelan universities that put extreme poverty in the country at 61 per cent. Maduro says it's only 4.4 per cent.
"He is in a state of denial," Santos said of Maduro. "He is irrational because he says no, there is no crisis there and he does not need help."
"We've killed many of their leaders and regional chiefs there."
"The country is already too polarized. President-elect Duque told me himself in this very (presidential) palace: 'Look, I'm going to continue with the policies I think are working, correct those that aren't working and I'll introduce some of my own projects and initiatives. I won't govern with a rearview mirror.'
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