(CNN Spanish) – Colombia’s president-elect, Gustavo Petro, has announced that once in office, he will reopen the border with Venezuela “to restore the full exercise of human rights” there.
“I have contacted the Venezuelan government to open the border and restore the full exercise of human rights at the border,” Petro wrote on his Twitter account.
I have contacted the Venezuelan government to open the border and to restore the full exercise of human rights at the border.
Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) June 22 2022
Following Petro’s announcement, the questioned Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro, confirmed that he had spoken with the president-elect of Colombia on the matter.
I spoke with the president-elect of Colombia Tweet embedOn behalf of the Venezuelan people, I congratulated him on his victory. We discussed the desire to restore normal life on the borders, and various issues about peace and a prosperous future for both peoples,” he wrote. on his Twitter account.
In recent years, that border has been partially closed and has been the epicenter of conflicts and rising tensions, which particularly affected trade between the two countries. In 2008, the trade turnover amounted to about 7200 million US dollars, in 2015 it decreased to about 1.331 million US dollars and in 2020 it was only 221 million dollars.
It was the vast frontier that people and goods passed through for centuries Closed In 2015 by the Venezuelan government following a confrontation between Venezuelan security forces and civilians, which President Nicolas Maduro attributed to “paramilitary groups” in Colombia and which he blamed on former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, who denied the charges.
In the following years, the situation gradually returned to normal, but in 2019, again, Venezuela borders closed, Amid escalating tensions between the governments of Maduro and President Ivan Duque in Colombia.
The 2020 pandemic has exacerbated the situation: Colombia hill Her borders in March of that year, although she returned to it open them In June 2021.
The Simon Bolivar, Santander and Unión international bridges between the province of Norte de Santander (Colombia) and the state of Tachira (Venezuela) are essentially closed. Although other passes, such as Maicao, in La Guajira Province (Colombia) and Maracaibo, in Zulia (Venezuela), largely remained Open.
according to Colombian Venezuelan ChamberDuring the recent years of partial border closures, most trade was handled by the Maicao and Cartagena Customs in Colombia. The port of Barranquilla played a major role in Colombia’s imports from Venezuela.
Petro meeting with his team about the transfer process
Petro will meet on Wednesday with his program team in Bogota.
“It begins its public agenda in the face of the communication process between the outgoing and incoming governments,” her press team said in a brief statement.
German Badinger and Florencia Trocco contributed to this report.