The president-elect of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, announced that, as soon as he takes office, he will reopen the borders with Venezuela to “reestablish the full exercise of human rights” there.
“I spoke with the Venezuelan government to open the borders and restore the full exercise of human rights at the border,” Petro wrote on his Twitter account.
I have communicated with the Venezuelan government to open the borders and restore the full exercise of human rights on the border.
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) June 22, 2022
In recent years, this border has been partially closed and has been the focus of conflicts and escalating tensions, which have particularly affected trade between the two countries.
The long border, through which people and goods have passed for centuries, was closed in 2015 by the Venezuelan government after a clash between Venezuelan security forces and civilians, which President Nicolás Maduro attributed to “paramilitarism” in Colombia and for which he blamed the former president. Colombian President Álvaro Uribe, who denied the allegations.
In the following years, the situation gradually normalized, but in 2019, Venezuela once again closed the border, amid an escalation of tensions between the governments of Maduro and President Iván Duque, in Colombia.
The Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 only made the situation worse: Colombia closed its borders in March of that year, although it reopened them in June 2021.
The international bridges Simón Bolívar, Santander and Unión between the department of Norte de Santander (Colombia) and the state of Táchira (Venezuela) were closed, although other crossings such as Maicao in the department of La Guajira (Colombia) and Maracaibo in Zulia (Venezuela), have mostly remained open.
According to the Colombian-Venezuelan Chamber, during the last few years of partial border closure, most of the trade was processed by the customs of Maicao and Cartagena in Colombia. The port of Barranquilla has played a key role in Colombian imports from Venezuela.
Petro will meet this Wednesday (22) with his programmatic team in Bogotá.
“He starts his public agenda in the face of the process of connecting governments that leave and those that arrive,” his press team said in a brief statement.
Source: CNN Brasil
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