The presidents of Colombia and Venezuela met for the first time in years, as neighboring countries continue to fix and push for deepening economic ties.
The talks that took place Tuesday in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, between Colombia’s new leftist president, Gustavo Petro, and Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro come weeks after the two nations reopened key and shared border crossings.
Petro, who took office in August, had promised to repair Colombia’s ties with Venezuela, which were severed in 2019 due to political tensions and security considerations along the border.
In a preview of Tuesday’s talks, Petro’s office said he and Maduro would discuss bilateral relations, reopening the border and Venezuela’s reintegration into inter-American human rights systems.
The assembly is also part of efforts to liven up regional economies and the Amazon, he said.
Petro received at the Simon Bolivar International Airport through Vice President Delcy Rodriguez and Foreign Minister Carlos Faria around 1:40 p. m. local time (17:40 GMT) before leaving for the presidential palace to meet with Maduro.
“For six years there has been a political vacuum between two neighboring countries, Colombia and Venezuela,” Petro at a Colombian army airport before leaving for Caracas.
“Of course, we have a lot to say to each other after all this time,” he said, adding that the assembly schedule is open.
Al Jazeera’s Alessandro Rampietti, reporting from Bogota, said the talks are “very much for both countries” and mark “the first time a Colombian president has visited Venezuelan territory since 2016. “
Rampietti explained that Maduro hopes to use the assembly to “show that he possibly wouldn’t be so isolated after all in the region,” while Petro has obviously asked Venezuela to return to inter-American rights systems and courts.
“This is a way for Gustavo Petro to be noticed not as legitimizing Maduro,” Rampieti said, “but expects to be noticed as a mediator here, bringing Venezuela back to the foreign organization of American states. “
Colombia and Venezuela re-established full diplomatic relations last August, sending ambassadors to their respective capitals.
“Relations with Venezuela have never been broken. We are brothers and an imaginary line cannot separate us,” Colombia’s new envoy, Armando Benedetti, said at the time.
Caracas severed relations with Bogotá in 2019 after Venezuelan opposition activists tried to send aid trucks from Colombia in a move Maduro’s government called a front for a coup attempt.
Former right-wing Colombian President Ivan Duque also accused Venezuela of supporting teams operating along the 2,200-kilometer (1,367-mile) of the country’s unusual border, which has seen a spike in violence in recent years.
In March, Human Rights Watch accused Venezuela of conducting joint operations with Colombian rebels in Venezuela’s Apure state.
The reopening of border crossings in September was welcomed by citizens on both sides of the border who said they hoped it would bring much-needed economic activity to the region.
Other observers said they were confident it would also create safer situations for migrants and refugees crossing the border.
Venezuela has experienced a mass exodus in recent years amid a socioeconomic and security crisis, and more than seven million Venezuelans refugees and migrants now in other countries besides Colombia.
Meanwhile, Venezuela, along with Chile and Cuba, will be the guarantor of the planned negotiations between the Colombian government and the National Liberation Army (ELN), the largest group left in Colombia.
While Bogotá struck a deal with leftist insurgents from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – FARC) in 2016, the country has seen an increase in violence as FARC dissidents and other insurgent teams battle for territory, specifically in outdoor spaces stateArray.
Petro, who was also a fighter, is pushing to end the armed confrontation in Colombia as part of a policy dubbed “total peace. “
The ELN insisted that its central command has authority over fractured combat groups to negotiate a genuine peace with the government.