Colombian President Gustavo Petroordered the closure of the numerous existing trails on the border with Venezuela, for promote trade and combat smuggling and the corruption of officials from both countries.
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Petro made the statements in Cúcuta, capital of the department of Norte de Santander, where he assured that the full reopening of the border, that he himself headed at the end of September 2022, after being closed for seven years to the passage of vehicles, has not had the expected economic impact because the merchandise trade is still done by trails.
“At the end of a month, only two and a half million dollars in products have passed here and there. And where are the rest of the products going?“, asked the president.
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Petro recalled that last September 26 the Simon Bolivar International Bridge, main official passage between the two countries, and “now it’s time to close the trails”, many of them controlled by illegal armed groups, for trade to flow legally.
“We opened the bridge, we fought, we ran the political cost and the economy continues to pass through the trail, because there, uniformed officers and officials from there and here, are charging the commission“, he claimed.
He then ordered his Minister of Commerce, Industry, and Tourism, Germán Umaña, close illegal steps:”Those trails are closed because they are closed“.
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Legal border for all
“We want to open the border, not so that the trucks pass through the trail and pay the chili to the state forces on both sides, smuggling, but we want them to pass through the bridge“, Petro underlined in a speech before some 5,000 attendees at a day of the Binding Regional Dialogues, who leads his government.
President Petro talking about the border.
EFE
The president emphasized that both the Simón Bolívar bridge and the Francisco de Paula Santander bridge, which connect Norte de Santander with the Venezuelan state of Táchira, were not opened “so that the living here and there fill their pockets and get rich“.
“We are going to make changes on this side and I am going to request changes on that side“, he said in reference to Venezuela.
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Likewise, he stated that yes for that youYoHe has to talk to his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolás Maduro, he will, “because this border is for the people, not for the mafias“.
Despite the fact that the reopening of the border, whose closure was ordered by Maduro in August 2015 due to political and ideological differences with Colombia, was presented a month ago as a milestone to give a immediate economic jump Due to the renewed bilateral relationship, this measure has been reduced to a few commercial operations.
So far, the circulation of people remains limited and the passage of cargo trucks, which was a symbol of the reopening, is three a day on average.
EFE
