For years there have been tensions between Venezuela and Colombia, but now things have eased: both countries are resuming diplomatic relations. This is also possible because a new government is in office in Colombia.
Venezuela and Colombia have officially resumed diplomatic relations after a three-year ice age. Colombian ambassador Armando Benedetti, appointed by Colombia’s new left-wing President Gustavo Petro, arrived in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas on Sunday. Benedetti was welcomed by Venezuela’s Deputy Foreign Minister Rander Peña Ramírez. The post of ambassador had not been filled since 2019. The two countries are direct neighbors in South America.
“Relations with Venezuela should never have broken, we are brothers and an imaginary line cannot separate us,” Benedetti said on Twitter. A policy like that of Petro’s right-wing predecessor, Ivan Duque, must not divide Colombia and Venezuela.
Venezuela’s Deputy Foreign Minister Peña tweeted that the mutual “historic ties call us to work together for the happiness of our peoples.” His country is sending ex-Foreign Minister Félix Plasencia to Bogotá as its new ambassador. The two countries announced on August 11 that they would resume diplomatic relations with the dispatch of ambassadors.
In Venezuela, President Nicolás Maduro is governed by a socialist. In 2019, like many Western countries, Colombia did not recognize his re-election, but supported the proclamation of Venezuela’s opposition leader Juan Guaidó as the new president. In the course of the bitter power struggle between Maduro and Guaidó and because of Venezuela’s deep economic crisis, around two million Venezuelans have fled to Colombia in recent years.
The new Ambassador Benedetti pointed out that more than eight million Colombians make a living from trade with Venezuela. One goal is therefore to revive trade relations between the two countries. Another challenge for the two neighbors is fighting armed groups active along their more than 2,000-kilometer shared border.