The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, received this Tuesday at the Miraflores Palace the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, thus staging the reestablishment of relations between the two countries after the common border had been closed for seven years.
Maduro and Petro have signed a joint declaration by which Venezuela and Colombia begin «a new era of cooperation», inspired by the «historical legacy of unuon and the spirit of fraternity» that inspired both countries «the liberator father Simón Bolívar», as detailed in a statement by the Presidency of Venezuela.
«Today, November 1, 2022, on behalf of our brotherly peoples and in constitutional representation of Venezuela and Colombia, on the occasion of the first bilateral meeting between both presidents: They expressed their high complacency and satisfaction for the historic mission and for the happy responsibility conferred by providence for the resumption of binational relations,» reads the joint statement signed by Maduro and Petro.
In this sense, both presidents have agreed to «advance firmly» towards the union and peace of their countries, towards the total reopening of their common border, as well as to promote security in the border area, trade integration and cooperation in the protection of the Amazon.
They also agreed on the return of Venezuela to the Andean Community, as well as the reintegration of Caracas in the Inter-American Human Rights system, as Petro has requested to his Venezuelan counterpart, reported ‘El Colombiano’.
Petro has considered that «separating nations becomes a suicidal adventure», thus confirming the closeness Colombia will have with his country in the coming years.
«It is unnatural, anti-historical, that Colombia and Venzuela separate. It once happened at a bad time, and it should not happen because we are the same people, blood ties bring us together (…) We are mixed by history, by a common root and by blood, therefore separating nations becomes a suicidal adventure», Petro has asserted during a press conference.
Maduro described the meeting between both presidents as a «historic event», assuring that both countries are destined to «brotherhood and understanding».
«Undoubtedly, Colombia and Venezuela, if we have something, it is a common destiny. Governments are obliged, in the diversity of our visions, always to work for the common good», said the Venezuelan president during his speech at the press conference following the signing of the joint declaration.
Colombia currently hosts almost 2.5 million Venezuelan migrants, according to UN data, but the arrival of Petro to power has meant an unprecedented rapprochement with Venezuela in recent years, marked by the criticism of former president Ivan Duque against Maduro.
This meeting puts an end to seven years in which the border has remained practically closed, after Maduro closed the passage between the two Latin American countries during the government of Juan Manuel Santos due to the alleged presence of Colombian paramilitaries in his territory. A crisis that worsened with the expulsion of hundreds of Colombians from Venezuela.
Petro expressed to Maduro his willingness to reestablish «the full exercise of Human Rights» between the two countries upon his arrival to the presidency, after the outgoing Iván Duque put an end to diplomatic relations in February 2019.
