Venezuela and Colombia reopen their borders

CARACAS: Mutual confidence in moving toward restoring full and lasting political and diplomatic relations will ensure today that Venezuela and Colombia open their borders after more than seven years of closure.

The measure was announced by President Nicolas Maduro and his Colombian counterpart Gustavo Petro on September 9, which also adds to the resumption of commercial flights between Caracas, Bogota and Valencia with the new state capital of Granada.

“I am very pleased to announce that from September 26th we will jointly open the border between Venezuela and Colombia. In addition, we will resume flights between Caracas Bogota and Valencia Bogota,” the president wrote on his Twitter account. He stressed that “exchange and cooperation between our peoples are proceeding in full swing.”

During a working meeting with the country’s governors and mayors, the president stressed that the moment will be good for both countries and will be “very exciting” for the Colombian and Venezuelan peoples.

This inaugural move was preceded by a series of meetings between authorities from the ministries of transport, trade and economy, and another between Foreign Ministers Carlos Faria (Venezuela) and Alvaro Leiva (Colombia), as well as the defense ministries.

Last Saturday’s meeting of top military leaders, Vladimir Padrino and Ivan Velasquez, respectively, outlined the road map to be followed in maintaining security, which is vital to being able to advance in joint plans for social and infrastructure development in the borders of the volatile region.

Previously, Venezuelan and Colombian intellectuals held the Binational Meeting of La Paz Poets Unite Us, which was held in Cúcuta, Norte de Santander, and in San Cristobal, Tachira state.

A meeting of parliamentarians from the Colombian Congress and the Venezuelan National Assembly was also scheduled yesterday, which was postponed for the future with five scheduled meetings, some of which may take place before the end of 2022.

The opening of the 2,219-kilometer border from the start has raised expectations on both sides among the local population and small, medium and large businessmen, which means in the economic system bilateral trade has been almost paralyzed until now.

The volume of trade between the two countries amounted to eight billion dollars in the period between 2007 and 2009, according to the data published here, and is expected to reach two billion dollars before the end of the year.

The rupture of relations occurred in February 2019 due to the brazenness of self-proclaimed President Juan Guaido in his intention to violate the legitimacy of the constitutional government of the Bolivarian Republic.

Caracas and Bogotá did not re-establish until last August 29 by handing letters of credit to President Nicolas Maduro, by the Colombian ambassador appointed here, Armando Benedetti, a procedure he repeated on September 7 before Gustavo Petro, Felix Placencia.