MEXICO CITY (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th December, 2022) Venezuela will open its western borders with Colombia for transport on January 1 after a four-year closure, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Tuesday.
"Speaking about the improvement of relations with Colombia, I can announce that we will completely open the border of western Venezuela with Colombia for motorcycles, trucks, cars ... we are preparing everything for the opening on January 1, and starting from 2023, these borders will become functional and free," Maduro said at a meeting with political-military commanders.
On September 26, Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced the reopening of the shared border with Venezuela after three years of feuding, and on November 8, both countries resumed round-trip flights.
On November 1, Petro visited Caracas and met with Maduro for the first time. The sides signed a joint declaration outlining the key areas of future cooperation. They said the initial period of bilateral normalization would focus on the restoration of joint border, the opening of land, air, river, and sea transport, the creation and reactivation of joint border security mechanisms, as well as the restoration of consular services.
Venezuela severed diplomatic relations with Colombia in February 2019, after Bogota recognized Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as interim president following mass protests. After the election of Gustavo Petro as the first left-wing president of Colombia on June 20 this year, relations between the countries began to normalize. At the end of July, the foreign ministers of Venezuela and Colombia held a meeting.
