Entrepreneurs from Colombia and Venezuela met this Monday in the Venezuelan city of San Cristóbal to prepare the ground for an imminent reopening of the border between the two countries, closed to vehicles since 2015, political and employer sources reported.
(Trade between Colombia and Venezuela would close 2022 at US$1.2 billion).
The governor of Táchira, the official Freddy Bernal, explained, in a video that he shared through Instagram, that the meeting is called “Border Agreement”, and that businessmen and political authorities from both nations participate. “It is a long-awaited event (…) based on integration, unity, the opening of borders (…) to deepen ties of brotherhood between peoples,” said Bernal, accompanied by Rubén Zamora and Wilfredo Cañizales, representatives of the Historical Pact political coalition with which Gustavo Petro won the Presidency of Colombia.
In addition to this pair of representatives from the Colombian department of Norte de Santander, the governor explained that a whole “high-level commission” made up of senators, politicians and union representatives participated in the activity. The meeting was organized by the largest employer in Venezuela, Fedecamaras, through its branch in the state of Táchira together with the Interunion Committee of Norte de Santander.
(How the Left Wave in America is Different from the ‘Pink Tide’).
Colombia and Venezuela share a 2,219-kilometer border that has been closed to vehicles since August 2015. by order of the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, who had previously expelled thousands of Colombians from that area. Subsequently, on February 23, 2019, Maduro broke off diplomatic relations with Colombia amid escalating tensions over President Iván Duque’s recognition of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó as interim president.
Petro has established a contact with the Venezuelan Government with the purpose of opening the border community and “restore the full exercise of human rights” in this busy border area.
EFE
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