Maduro and Petro met in Caracas, did not offer statements

The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, and his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, held an “extraordinary meeting” at the Miraflores Palace to follow up on bilateral cooperation issues discussed during Petro’s first trip to Caracas in November last year.

The meeting, which lasted for almost three hours, ended without the leaders offering statements to present a balance of what was discussed.

“With the President of the Republic of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, we had a broad and very fruitful meeting. We have a clear joint work path that will continue to yield positive results for our countries, in different areas. Long live the union between Colombia and Venezuela!” Maduro limited himself to reporting on Twitter at the end of the meeting.

Petro’s visit was announced Saturday morning by Armando Benedetti, Colombia’s ambassador to Venezuela.

“Today will be the second visit that President @petrogustavo makes to Caracas after relations between Colombia and Venezuela were restored. I will be accompanying him, with the conviction to continue working for a common agenda between two sister nations, ”he wrote on Twitter.

The Colombian president arrived accompanied by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Álvaro Leyva; the Minister of Commerce, Germán Umaña and the Colombian Ambassador to the United States, Luis Gilberto Murillo.

Last week the Atanasio Girardot binational bridge was reopened, between the states of Táchira and Norte de Santander. The loading crossings over the Simón Bolívar and Francisco de Paula Santander bridges were reestablished in September of last year.

Colombia and Venezuela restored diplomatic relations in August last year, after Petro took power.

In 2015, after a diplomatic crisis with the Colombian government, Maduro ordered the closure of the passage of vehicles on the border with Colombia and in 2018 the Venezuelan government expelled consular officials.

Relations between Maduro and former President Iván Duque, who recognized Juan Guaidó as interim president of Venezuela, were marked by constant mutual accusations, especially since 2019 when humanitarian aid was tried to enter across the border.

Petro, who has expressed his willingness to support an agreement between Venezuelans, participated in a meeting on Venezuela in November within the framework of the V Paris Forum for Peace, which was attended by the heads of government delegations and the opposition in the negotiations in Mexico; Anniken Huitfeldt, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Norway, a mediating country in the process; and the presidents of France and Argentina, Emmanuel Macron and Alberto Fernández, respectively.

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