Colombia will create tables to resume relations with Venezuela

On Thursday, the Colombian government installed a work team to progressively reactivate relations with Venezuela, and announced the creation of technical tables in which the main issues to be resolved, such as border crossings, security, trade, migration issues and consular

The decision was made at a meeting between Colombian officials, including the newly installed ambassador of Colombia in Caracas, Armando Benedetti, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The government of Gustavo Petro, the first left-wing president in Colombia, reestablished diplomatic relations with Venezuela and recognized Nicolás Maduro as legitimate president, after three years of political breakdown between the two neighboring countries. Iván Duque, Petro’s predecessor, called Maduro a “dictator” and recognized opposition leader Juan Guaidó as interim president.

In the new stage of relations that began, Colombia seeks to articulate at all levels of government to continue with the bilateral dialogue. The new work team, called the “inter-institutional unit” will also be in charge of defining a schedule and the step-by-step in the reactivation of the different sectors.

In parallel, the Minister of Commerce and Industry of Colombia, Germán Umaña Mendoza, visited Caracas on Thursday to meet with the Maduro government. Umaña is a connoisseur of border trade and before being appointed minister he was the president of the Colombo-Venezuelan Chamber.

Colombia and Venezuela share 2,200 kilometers of border. Since 2015 there have been partial and total closures, and currently only pedestrian passage is allowed, not cargo transport, which has affected trade. A date for the reopening of the border has not been disclosed.

The lack of communication and security cooperation between the two countries for three years strengthened the illegal crossings —also called trails—, through which illegal armed groups carry out smuggling, drug trafficking and human trafficking activities.

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