(Caracas) Colombian President-designate Gustavo Petro spoke with his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro about their common desire to “restore” border travel, which has been severely restricted since 2019 due to the cessation of diplomatic relations between the two country.
Posted yesterday at 6:04 p.m.
“We discussed the desire to restore normality at the borders, various issues of peace and the prosperous future of the two peoples”, tweeted Nicolas Maduro saying he had “on behalf of the Venezuelan people, congratulated (Mr. Petro) for his victory.
Mr. Petro, elected on Sunday as the first left-wing president in the history of Colombia, announced during the campaign that he wanted to normalize relations between the two countries. He said he had spoken “with the Venezuelan government to open the borders and restore the full exercise of human rights there”.
No other details were given about the conversation between the two heads of state.
Venezuela severed diplomatic ties with Colombia in 2019 after Mr Maduro’s re-election which Bogota deemed fraudulent. The outgoing conservative Colombian president, Ivan Duque, had recognized the opponent Juan Guaidó as interim president of Venezuela.
Photo ZURIMAR CAMPOS, Agence France-Presse archives
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro
The border between the two countries, once the busiest in Latin America, has completely closed, with the passage of vehicles already restricted since 2015.
On this immense border of more than 2,200 km, many clandestine crossings have however been created, then official pedestrian and river traffic partially resumed at the end of 2021.
However, the passage of vehicles and goods remains closed in the Colombian city of Cucuta, where the main border bridges are located.
In front of the press, Mr. Duque warned Mr. Petro “to install a gas dependency with Venezuela […], because we see what is happening in Europe. We cannot give control of energy sovereignty to an authoritarian regime which, at any time, by a fortuitous decision, can suspend the supply of gas,” he warned.
The border is also the scene of multiple attacks by irregular armed groups against Colombian and Venezuelan security forces.
Ivan Duque has repeatedly accused Nicolas Maduro of harboring Colombian guerrillas and drug traffickers on his territory, which Caracas denies.
“Let them capture them and extradite them to show Colombia that there is a will to collaborate with our country,” Duque said.
The two countries are, however, intimately linked by their population: Colombia hosts two of the six million Venezuelans who have fled their country since 2015.