The Simón Bolívar and Francisco de Paula Santander international bridges that connect the Táchira state in Venezuela with the Department of Norte de Santander in Colombia, will be enabled for the passage of cargo vehicles in an act on Monday at 10 a.m. local time, reported the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism of Colombia (Mincit).
“The logistical issue for compliance with the requirements for exports and imports (certificates of origin and phytosanitary and cargo inspection, among others) is already duly coordinated and arranged to restart foreign trade through these steps,” the agency said in a statement. release.
Representatives of several Venezuelan and Colombian institutions met to, according to the Mincit, advance in a “coordinated work that included the review of the infrastructure of the bridges, the provision of logistics by the control authorities and the location of the transport and of the trucks that will cross the border.
The vehicles that pass through the bridges may not exceed 30 tons, specified the director (e) of Execution and Operation of the National Institute of Roads of Colombia, Carolina Barbanti.
Although the schedules are still in the process of being defined, the Director of Customs of the Colombian National Tax and Customs Directorate (DIAN), Ingrid Díaz, announced that 38 officials will attend the cargo passage between 10 in the morning and 6 in the afternoon.
This week, Colombian Transportation Minister Guillermo Reyes made a working visit to Caracas and confirmed that a first flight will take place on Monday to resume air operations between the two countries.
“Conviasa will make the first flight, a charter flight from Caracas-Valencia-Bogotá and will make the return route. The first airline that will fly in the Colombian case, with all the authorizations, will be Wingo on October 3, ”he said.
Jorge Rodríguez, president of the Parliament with a Chavista majority, announced that, within the framework of normalization of relations between Caracas and Bogotá, the Colombian Congress and the National Assembly that he presides over, will hold a binational meeting on the border on Sunday.
“We will also be accompanied by Venezuelan deputies from the border areas, from the states of Táchira, Zulia, Apure, Amazonas, we assume that on the Colombian side there will also be a representation of similar characteristics and it is a way to accompany this normalization process,” he announced.
Meanwhile, Freddy Bernal, the official governor of Táchira, assured that, together with the rest of the Venezuelan authorities, he is deployed at the border to, as he said, make “adjustments” before the formal act.
President Nicolás Maduro said this week that coordination is taking place to implement joint security plans.
“For the fight against the criminal border gangs that make life difficult for the people of the border, with kidnapping, smuggling, drug trafficking, violence,” he said in a broadcast on the state channel.
Although there were rumors about a possible meeting between Maduro and Petro on Monday at the border, the Colombian president said Thursday during a forum in New York that “it is not on the agenda at this time.”
At the end of last month, the ambassadors of Colombia in Venezuela, Armando Benedetti, and of Venezuela in Colombia, Félix Plasencia, traveled to present their credentials and “completely” restore relations between the two countries.
In 2015, after a diplomatic crisis with the Colombian government and arguing security reasons, Maduro ordered to close the passage of vehicles on the border of more than 2,000 kilometers 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 attempted to cross the border.
The commercial exchange between Venezuela and Colombia exceeded 7 billion dollars in 2008 and “fell to the lowest figure” in 2020, when it stood at about 222 million dollars, according to data from Mincit.
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