Congressmen from Colombia and Venezuela agree to work together to reactivate the border

The congressmen of Colombia and Venezuela expressed on Friday their willingness to work together to achieve a total opening of the border between the two countries, during an event called the ‘First Binational Parliamentary Meeting’.

Jorge Rodríguez, president of the Venezuelan Assembly, affirmed that work commissions have been installed in five border zones.

“Parliaments have a lot to do in social, commercial, political, security matters, in terms of legal instruments that can help governments speed up,” Rodríguez told reporters after the meeting.

The event, which took place next to the Simón Bolívar bridge, on the Colombian side, in Cúcuta, was also attended by ambassadors Armando Benedetti and Félix Plasencia.

Plasencia, Colombian ambassador to Venezuela, highlighted the “commitment” of both Parliaments to “build the legal path and text necessary to be able to advance in all the issues that concern us, be they those of automobile traffic, be they those of the mobility of citizens ” or those that benefit the compatriots who are on the other side of the border.

Gloria Flórez, president of the Second Committee on Foreign Policy, Security and National Defense of the Colombian Senate, also stated that they will soon sit down in Caracas to “get the agenda of the five bi-regional meetings that we are going to implement with the different sectors of the civil society, local authorities” as a function of integrating the two nations.

pending challenges

For his part, Benedetti, Colombian ambassador to Venezuela, said that the process has been “tortuous” because it started from “minus zeros”, from the Colombian side, but affirmed that diplomatic relations have been restoredjudicial cooperation, cargo transport, joint operations of the public force and the reopening of borders, but air transport is still pending.

“We are delayed, but more because of Plasencia than mine, in the air issue. We already gave permits for the airlines, so the permits and the technical tender that are made by the Colombian airlines in Venezuela are lacking and, with that, We already have a lot to talk about,” he explained during the meeting.

Jairo Yáñez, mayor of Cúcuta, told the journalists that they are working on the problems that are still pending, jointly, that “they are not solved only with the vehicular passage of goods” and that they will be solved little by little, but that there are many “parallel tasks”, in the economic fieldsuch as “interbank payments, foreign exchange management,” and the logistics to solve the “uniform passage of merchandise” through the Tienditas bridge, on the Venezuelan side.

Legislators advocate full opening

The congressmen of both countries hope that the meetings and joint work will bear fruit and that they will soon be able to talk about a total opening of the border.

The deputy of the Venezuelan Assembly, Juan Carlos Palencia, said that they are betting “that the integration process of a total opening of the border be fully strengthened; not partial, total.” And, for this reason, they will support the initiatives from a legal and political point of view.

Jairo Cristo, Representative to the Colombian Chamber also stated that he hopes that this will be the last protocol meeting and that there will be a total opening of the border.

On September 26, the border between Colombia and Venezuela was officially reopened, seven years after the decision of the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to close it.

[Con la colaboración de Karen Sánchez , periodista de VOA, desde Bogotá]

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