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In the first week of Gustavo Petro’s government in Colombia, the president took steps to resume diplomatic relations with neighboring Venezuela. Two nations that share more than two thousand kilometers of border and whose inhabitants are the most affected by the decisions of the heads of state that, until now, had been based on the difference in their ideologies, something that now brings them closer together.
The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, appointed the former Venezuelan foreign minister, Félix Plasencia, as the new ambassador in Bogotá. In response, the Colombian president appointed former senator Armando Benedetti as his representative in Caracas. Both officials represent a step forward in the intention of Colombia’s first leftist president to restore relations between the two countries, broken since 2019.
President @petrogustavoI will surprise you when we reach 10 billion dollars in trade, when we benefit the more than 8 million Colombians who live on the border. No imaginary line will ever separate us as brothers.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR TRUST!— Armando Benedetti (@AABenedetti) August 12, 2022
Nicolás Maduro came to power in Venezuela in April 2013, after the death of Hugo Chávez. So, in Colombia, the president was Juan Manuel Santos, who began a new era in relations between Bogotá and Caracas, which had a series of ups and downs during the mandate of Álvaro Uribe Vélez, until breaking up in 2010 when the Colombian conservative accused the regime Venezuelan to allow the guerrillas of the FARC and the ELN to take refuge in its territory.
However, a new crisis was settled in 2015 when Maduro ordered the closure of the Simón Bolívar International Bridge, which links the Venezuelan state of Táchira with the Colombian state of Norte de Santander, and deported the Colombians who were there, allegedly for being involved in an attack. to Venezuelan soldiers and illicit activities, such as gasoline smuggling and it was not until 2016 that the border was reopened.
Duke, Trump and Juan Guaidó
In January 2019, the United States, then under the command of Donald Trump, recognized the president of the Assembly, Juan Guaidó, as the legitimate president of Venezuela and ignored the results of the 2018 presidential elections, in which Maduro won. but that they did not have a transparent call process and registered the highest abstention in the history of presidential elections since 1958.
Colombia, led by Iván Duque, followed in Trump’s footsteps and legitimized Guaidó. Washington offered humanitarian aid to Venezuela, which would enter through the Colombian border, to which Maduro responded by assuring that it was an excuse for a military invasion and closed the borders.
In February 2019, a concert was held on the Colombian side of the border with the aim of pressuring Maduro to allow humanitarian aid to enter. Maduro decides instead to break diplomatic relations with Colombia.
The border remains closed until 2021, when the containers that were blocking the passage of vehicles were removed.
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