The presidents of Colombia and Venezuela met at the border on Thursday to sign a deal designed to improve trade between the two countries and lift import duties on dozens of manufactured goods.
The deal comes as relations between the two countries improve after the election of Colombia’s first leftist president. Colombia and Venezuela recently opened their border bridges to commercial trucks for the first time in seven years.
“It’s not just about facilitating trade, it’s also about making it easier for people to move between the two countries,” said Colombian President Gustavo Petro. “There must be legality here so that people’s rights are protected.”
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Trade between Colombia and Venezuela declined sharply after 2015 due to political disputes that led to frequent border closures.
Leftist Colombian President Gustavo Petro has met with Venezuelan Prime Minister Nicolas Maduro to liberalize trade between the two nations. (Juan Cano/Colombian Presidential Press Office via AP)
In 2019, the socialist president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, closed the border for months, had containers placed on bridges that connected the countries and severed diplomatic ties.
Maduro acted after Colombia’s then-conservative government and the United States recognized Venezuelan opposition politician Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s legitimate leader and tried to help him bring truckloads of humanitarian aid to the cash-strapped country.
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Last year, Colombia and Venezuela renewed diplomatic ties following the election of Petro as president of Colombia.
Petro has recognized Maduro as Venezuela’s legitimate leader and has distanced himself from US-led efforts to isolate Venezuela’s authoritarian government.
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Colombia’s new president has said he would like to persuade Venezuela to rejoin the inter-American human rights system, and also asked Venezuela to assist Colombia’s efforts to broker a peace deal with the National Liberation Army, a rebel group present on both sides of the border.
