Petro disappointed by the poor commercial flow on the border with Venezuela, promises to close the ‘trails’

One month after Colombian-Venezuelan border reopenedthe president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, was disappointed by the unexpected income and attacked the illegal trade that runs through the trails.

“We open the border”, said Petro in a speech on Thursday in Cúcuta, department of Norte de Santander, but criticized that after a month only 2.5 million dollars in transactions have been reported and blamed the economic brake on the corruption of officials on both sides, to who accused of charging commissions in the trailsas the irregular roads that connect Colombia and Venezuela are known.

“Those trails they close because they close,” said the president, who expressed his disappointment by stating: “we opened the bridge, we gave ourselves ‘the peel’ [sic]we bear the political cost and the economy is still going through gauge“.

Last September 26 Petro arrived at the place for the opening after a seven-year closure by decision of his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolás Maduro.

According to figures from the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism of Colombia, the commercial exchange between the two countries reached its best figure in 2008 when it exceeded 7,000 million dollars. From that date, until 2015 it fell back to about 1,331 million and in 2020 it was just 221 million dollars.

“We did not open that bridge so that the ‘living’ in the trails get rich,” he warned.

Exhortation to Caracas

Later, Petro declared that he had urged Maduro to re-enter Venezuela into the Inter-American Human Rights System. “I have told him: look, I am president, because the Inter-American Human Rights System defended me,” she said.

Likewise, the president praised the work of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR), which -in his opinion- allowed him to reach the position in fulfillment of his mission.

“Well, I say, in respectful request, to the neighboring country: let’s strengthen the Inter-American Human Rights System, so that there is no political persecution in South America, so that democracy can be deepened, so that freedom is synonymous with change. politician,” he stressed.

In April 2019 Venezuela abandonedafter two years of formal request, the Organization of American States (OAS), which in turn supports the IACHR as its independent judicial body.

The arguments of the Venezuelan government were in response to “interfering, arbitrary, illicit, deviant, rude actions, against the sovereignty of the homeland,” according to Delcy Rodríguez, who at the time of the request was serving as Foreign Minister of Venezuela.

Late Thursday night, the Maduro government had not reacted to President Gustavo Petro’s statements.

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