The border line between the two countries had been closed since 2015 by decision of Nicolás Maduro
A Venezuelan truck loaded with steel sheets, and one from Colombia, with medicines, both adorned with colored balloons and with the flags of both countries, were the first to cross the border, which yesterday saw its reopening after being closed in the 2015 by the Government of Nicolás Maduro. Gustavo Petro, Colombian president, attended the symbolic act with a good entourage of his ministers, while the Bolivarian leader sent a representation of his Executive.
Colombians have many doubts about this new embrace between these two nations that during their history were considered sisters, but in recent years their rulers preferred to sacrifice the population of the border between Norte de Santander (Colombia) and Táchira ( Venezuela) to dedicate themselves to exchanging accusations and insults and living several years of tension.
There is a suspicion in the air that relations have resumed due to the political affinities of the new president of Colombia, the leftist Gustavo Petro, and the Maduro dictatorship, which a UN commission has recently accused of violence and commit crimes against humanity. Petro, however, speaks mainly of a great fact of purely economic interest. The numbers, without a doubt, support his reasoning. In 2008, the best year for bilateral trade, Colombia exported 6,000 million dollars and imported 1,200. Today the figure is depressing, reaching only 383 million. Tomorrow’s numbers seem too optimistic considering that Venezuela is experiencing a major economic crisis and the regime has led the country to reduce its industrial and financial activity.
Nowadays, economic experts assure that Venezuela does not have the same consumption capacity that it had in its best times. Its important export sectors, such as petrochemicals, steel and the automotive industry, have been reduced to a bare minimum. Colombia, on the other hand, appears as a country that is more a supplier than a buyer and with a growing and commercially more competitive economy, especially in agricultural products, processed foods and agribusiness.
In addition to improving the economy of both countries with the recovery of formal trade that reached rock bottom, and especially that of the almost 12 million inhabitants who have remained in the border area, the objective of the reopening is to put an end to illegal armed groups that control the border line, mafia networks dedicated to processing false visas and IDs, human trafficking and sexual exploitation of women, other groups dedicated to drug trafficking, extortion of smugglers and fuel trafficking. Or the presence of a guerrilla group from the ELN (National Liberation Army), which it is claimed has lived with the permissiveness of some Venezuelan organizations controlling mining resources and have been involved in the exploitation of gold and diamonds.
The President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, shakes hands with the Minister of Transport of Venezuela, Ramón Celestino Velásquez. /
The rupture of relations between Bogotá and Caracas took effect in 2015, when Nicolás Maduro arbitrarily expelled 1,500 Colombian citizens and caused a total of 22,000 to leave. Then in Colombia Juan Manuel Santos ruled. The crisis had another peak moment, already with Iván Duque in the presidency, in February 2019. So the images were very different from those shown this Monday on the Simón Bolívar bridge in Norte de Santander, full of joy and emotion. Three years ago, Maduro refused to allow humanitarian aid granted by neighboring states that recognized the interim president of Venezuela, Juan Guaidó, to enter his country through this same border. He considered the Bolivarian leader that it was an attempted invasion of his country.
“A historic day”
“It is a historic day for the region, for the country, for America in general. Globalization is first and foremost a relationship between neighbors. Anyone who measures international trade flows, cultural flows, population flows, will always find that the largest amount is between neighbors,” Petro said in a speech delivered shortly after the border reopening acts. «And so it was before sectarian reading took over hearts and brains. This was the case between Colombia and Venezuela, between Colombia and Ecuador, where we came to export goods with high industrial added value. That economic reality that could be the factor of industrialization, of real progress in Colombia.
Petro stressed that he wanted the first people to benefit from the reopening to be those who live on the border, “those who took risks on the trails.” He also stressed that “the economies of Colombia and Venezuela have to be integrated so that they are platforms for industrialization, and thus, achieve a general quality of life.”
The Colombian president spoke of taking advantage of and deepening this occasion after highlighting that Venezuela had asked to join the Andean community, just as the Republic of Chile and Argentina have done. “If we took that step, Colombia would be building its most important platform for economic progress after its own international market.”
Maduro, meanwhile, had only posted a tweet first thing in the morning in which he said: “We are resuming relations and taking firm steps to advance in the total and absolute opening of the border between brother peoples: Colombia and Venezuela. It is a historic and momentous day!”
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