The border between the two countries had been closed since 2015 by decision of Nicolás Maduro
A Venezuelan truck loaded with steel plates, and one from Colombia, with medicines, both decorated with colored balloons and with the flags of both countries, were the first to cross the border, which saw its reopening yesterday after it was closed by the government in 2015 by Nicolas Maduro. Gustavo Petro, the Colombian president, attended the symbolic act with a large retinue of his ministers, while the Bolivarian leader sent a delegation from his executive branch.
Colombians have many doubts about this new embrace between these two nations that were considered sisters during their history, but in recent years their rulers preferred it to the population of the border between Norte de Santander (Colombia) and Táchira (Venezuela). to devote himself to exchanging accusations and insults and living several years of tension.
There is suspicion that relations have resumed because of the political affinities of Colombia’s new president, leftist Gustavo Petro, and the Maduro dictatorship, recently accused by a UN commission of violence and crimes against humanity. . Petro, however, mainly speaks of a great fact of purely economic importance. The numbers certainly support his reasoning. In 2008, the best year for bilateral trade, Colombia exported $6,000 million and imported 1,200. Today, the figure is depressing, reaching just 383 million. Tomorrow’s numbers look too optimistic as Venezuela is going through a major economic crisis and the regime has led the country to cut back on its industrial and financial activities.
Today, economic experts assure that Venezuela does not have the same consumption capacity as in its best times. The important export sectors, such as the petrochemical, steel and automotive industries, have been reduced to an absolute minimum. Colombia, on the other hand, appears as a country that is more of 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 economies of both countries with the recovery of formal trade that has bottomed out, and especially that of the nearly 12 million inhabitants left behind in the border region, the aim of the reopening is to put an end to illegal armed groups controlling the border, mafia networks involved in processing false visas and IDs, trafficking in human beings and sexual exploitation of women, other groups involved in drug trafficking, extortion of smugglers and fuel trafficking. Or the presence of an ELN (National Liberation Army) guerrilla group, which are said to have lived with the permission of some Venezuelan organizations that control mining resources and have been involved in the exploitation of gold and diamonds.
The rift in relations between Bogotá and Caracas took effect in 2015, when Nicolás Maduro arbitrarily expelled 1,500 Colombian citizens and expelled a total of 22,000 citizens. Then Juan Manuel Santos reigned in Colombia. The crisis had another high point, 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 humanitarian aid from neighboring states that recognized Venezuela’s interim president, Juan Guaidó, to enter his country through the same border. The Bolivarian leader believed it was an attempted invasion of his country.
“It’s a historic day for the region, for the country, for America in general. Globalization is primarily a neighborly relationship. Anyone who measures international trade flows, cultural flows and population flows will always find that the largest amount is between neighbors,” Petro said in a speech shortly after the reopening of the border. “And so it was before sectarian literature took over hearts and brains. This was the case between Colombia and Venezuela, between Colombia and Ecuador, where we came to export goods with a high industrial added value, that economic reality that could be the factor of industrialization, of real progress in Colombia.
Petro emphasized that he wanted the first people to benefit from the reopening, namely those living on the border, “those who took risks on the trails.” He also stressed that “the economies of Colombia and Venezuela must be integrated so that they are platforms for industrialization and thus achieve an overall quality of life.”
The Colombian president spoke about taking advantage and deepening this opportunity after stressing 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 build its main platform for economic progress, after its own international market.”
Maduro, meanwhile, had only posted a tweet in the morning saying: “We are resuming relations and taking firm steps to make progress in the total and absolute opening of the border between fraternal peoples: Colombia and Venezuela. It is a historic and memorable day. !”
Source: La Verdad
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