BUENOS AIRES (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th January, 2023) The Venezuelan government is increasingly normalizing its relations with Brazil and Colombia under their new leadership after cooperation was halted under previous administrations, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil told Sputnik on Wednesday.
"We are now increasingly normalizing relations with Brazil as they have invited our ambassador there and sent their own envoy to Caracas. Economic and consular relations and joint projects are also being restored, we are quickly working on it," the minister said on the sidelines of the VII Summit of the the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) in Buenos Aires.
The minister added that Venezuela has been also normalizing its ties with Colombia under its new president, Gustavo Petro, who came to power in August 2022.
"As of now, there have already been two meetings with Petro. We have exchanged ambassadors, normalized consular relations... Colombia is our traditional partner," Gil noted.
Relations between Venezuela and Colombia were severed in 2019 after the Colombian government recognized Juan Guaido, head of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, as Venezuela's interim head of state amid mass protests against President Nicolas Maduro.
The two countries officially restored diplomatic ties in August 2022 following the election of President Petro in Colombia. In November, the two leaders met for the first time in six years and signed a joint declaration on the normalization of cooperation.
Diplomatic relations between Brazil and Venezuela deteriorated under Brazil's former president Jair Bolsonaro, who also recognized Guaido as the Venezuelan leader in 2019. In March 2020, the Brazilian Foreign Ministry recalled diplomats and employees of diplomatic missions from Venezuela.
Caracas and Brasilia resumed political dialogue after Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva defeated Bolsonaro in the Brazilian presidential election last fall.
