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A meeting of Ibero-American leaders held amid a deepening political and humanitarian crisis in Venezuela turned into a guessing game over whether the neighboring nation's president would show.

Reporters even trooped to the airport in Colombia's Caribbean city of Cartagena to await Nicolas Maduro.

His attendance had been expected after Peru's president laid down a gauntlet of sorts. Pedro Pablo Kuczynski said he would seek consensus for Venezuela's suspension from the Organization of American States for violating its democratic charter.

Maduro's government has been widely condemned for blocking the opposition's democratic attempt to oust him with a recall election.

Kuczynski said Saturday that it's very difficult for leaders to meet and not discuss the region's most burning issues. Venezuela is suffering severe food and medicine shortages and acute criminal violence.