Nicolás Maduro and Gustavo Petro have staged their third presidential summit after the resumption of diplomatic relations last year. On this occasion, the venue was not the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, since Chávez’s son finally decided to go to the border to meet his ally. Of course, despite being a few meters away, he did not reach Colombian soil.

“We are here signing a partial agreement that is one more step in the integration that, in my opinion, should never have been suspended. We are tracing the path of reunion, of the reunification of two countries that are destined by providence to be sister nations,” Maduro pontificated, despite the fact that he himself dynamited relations with Bogotá by decreeing in 2015 the expulsion of thousands of Colombians who lived in Venezuela, whom he accused of being “drug traffickers, paramilitaries, and prostitutes.”

Later, in 2019, came the challenge of the presidency in charge of Juan Guaidó and the international community as a whole, including Colombia, which harshly confronted the Bolivarian leader. But, with the electoral victory of the leftist Petro, a declared fan of Hugo Chávez although somewhat distant from Maduro, not only relations were reestablished, but also a close alliance that played a game of whitening and recognition of the Chavista dictatorship.

And that was one of the undeclared objectives of the meeting in the middle of the Atanasio Girardot Bridge, reopened to traffic between the two countries on January 1. The others were the continuation of the bilateral commercial program and the opening of other bridges for the passage of vehicles, ordered for this same Friday, although at noon they were still closed.

With the “partial agreement” signed, both presidents intend to smooth out the difficulties that have arisen in recent weeks and reach the figure of 1.8 billion dollars in commercial operations by the end of the year. Petro’s bet is to “remove barriers” to border trade so that people “can live without fear”, despite the persistent war by border mafias.

For the main mafia, the guerrilla of the National Liberation Army (ELN), the presidential words entered one ear and came out the other at the same speed with which this Friday they attacked the Arauquita military base in Arauca with explosives. , department adjacent to the one visited by the two presidents. The ELN is a close ally of Chavismo, which enjoys its sanctuary in Venezuela and which participates in the policy of social control imposed by Maduro, in addition to disputing with the dissidents of the FARC (Tenth Front) one of the main drug trafficking corridors in the continent.

“We all understood the importance of reestablishing relations with Venezuela for humanitarian and economic purposes, but this cronyism of the dictatorial regime was never endorsed,” said analyst Cristina Plazas.

Petro maintains a coalition heavyweight, Armando Benedetti, who has become one of the main courtiers of the Maduro family, as ambassador in Caracas. Even the president’s wife, the controversial Verónica Alcocer, has visited Caracas to meet with Maduro and his wife, the first combatant Cilia Flores.

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