Disputes in Colombia over the mayor’s agreement with Liberland, a proposed European country.

Signing an agreement with a proposed microstate Liberlanduninhabited “no man’s land” of about seven square kilometers in the heart of Europe, the mayor of the city Manizales (Colombia), Carlos Mario Marin, who even made a public speaking announcement this week.

On air on social media from City Hall, Marin announced “an agreement with the city of Liberland, with which we are going to open 5,000 places (for learning English) through a virtual platform to Manizales be a competitive city.

“We are very pleased to sign this memorandum of cooperation between Liberland and his people in the person of Randy Thompson (…) and the government of Manizales and his people,” the official said in relation to his interlocutor, allegedly a representative of a European microstate.

Diplomatic relations with Liberland

The agreement, Marin added, also aims to “establish mutual diplomatic relations” to “create the capacity to implement future plans for joint work” with a country where no one lives, where there are no buildings and where it is recognized only by another unrecognized nation. Republic of Somaliland.

Mayor Manizalesthe capital of the coffee department of Caldas, also did not know that the management of diplomatic relations is the responsibility of the national government through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and not of local authorities.

In the images, the mayor emphasizes that Thompson, a young man, served in the United States Army and fought in the Vietnam War, which ended 47 years ago.

The video, which was later removed from the City Hall’s official networks, sparked a flurry of ridicule and criticism of Marin, who never ruled on the matter.

Proposed European country

Self-proclaimed “Free Republic of Liberland”, according to its website, it is located on the banks of the Danube River, between Serbia and Croatia, and claims to be a direct democracy of the liberal faith.

Its founder was the Czech conservative politician Vit Jedlicka, who was detained several times by the Croatian authorities, who do not recognize his “state”.

The small area, which Serbia and Croatia are calling a “virtual joke,” sits on a temporary border between the two Balkan countries over which both sides are arguing.

Liberland has an area of ​​seven uninhabited square kilometers and its founders consider it the third largest state in the world after Monaco and the Vatican.

Thompson’s statements

Thompson, about whom little is known, was in jail in 2015 for robbing his employer in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, according to US media.

However, a controversial representative Liberland In an interview published this Thursday by Red + Noticias, he confirmed that he was arrested in the United States but released from prison as the charges were dropped.

(As reported by EFE)