The Simón Bolívar International Bridge that connects Norte de Santander with the state of Táchira will be the meeting point between the parliamentarians of Colombia and Venezuela on October 21.
The president of the Second Commission of the Colombian Senate, Gloria Inés Flórez, detailed through her Twitter account @GloriaFlorezSI: “October 21 will be the 1st Binational Parliamentary Meeting. The Congress of Colombia, the Assembly of Venezuela, local authorities, unions and civil society, will activate the dialogue in the face of border challenges and the reestablishment of relations”.
Also, in an interview given to The viewerFlórez informed that in Villa del Rosario, Metropolitan Zone of Cúcuta (North of Santander) this will be the first of five binational meetings that will be held at the different borders that unite Colombia with Venezuela.
According to the congresswoman, there, where the 1821 Constitution that gave way to Gran Colombia was signed, “the binational border table will be installed, in which, in addition to the delegates of the two congresses, the departmental, state authorities will participate. and civil society”.
The purpose of this meeting It will be to draw a road map to solve the problems of the border areas and attend to the needs of the population.
The parliamentarians on each side of the border agree that the five initial meetings that are planned will be held in both Colombia and Venezuela, focusing above all on areas with different dynamics.
who will participate
Those attending the installation, according to what Flórez said, would be made up of 50 parliamentarians from Colombia.
While for Venezuela between 40 and 50 deputies of the Bolivarian National Assembly are expected.
In dialogue with El Espectador, the Venezuelan deputy Juan Carlos Palencia assured that the Venezuelan Foreign Policy Commission will be present at the meeting and that they will present some of the problems encountered after the border reopening on September 26.
The grouping that will be held, according to Senator Flórez, will be from the “Colombian Caribbean Axis with the State of Zulia (Venezuela); the Andean Axis, which is that of the Santanderes and Boyacá (Colombia) with the state of Táchira, part of Barinas, Zulia and Mérida (Venezuela)”.
The Llanero Axis will also participate, which will be divided into two parts: “Arauca (Colombia) with Apure (Venezuela), Vichada (Colombia) with Amazonas (Venezuela) and later Guainía (Colombia) with Amazonas (Venezuela) where very complex problems have arisen” .
According to the legislators of both countries, border mayors and governors of the border states will be invited to the meeting.
In addition, the Colombian Executive expects the participation of the Minister of Commerce, Germán Umaña Mendoza; the director of the Directorate of National Taxes and Customs (Dian), Luis Carlos Reyes; the chancellor, Álvaro Leyva; and the Minister of Culture, Patricia Ariza.
Diary
In Colombia and Venezuela it has been detected that despite the reopening of bridges for the passage of cargo, some resistance to change persists and illegal crossings continue to be quite popular.
The presence of different armed actors on the border, cumbersome customs processes and corruption are some of the problems they seek to address at the meeting.
The planned agenda, according to what the parliamentarians said, will focus on these five points:
- border peace.
- Binational social agenda.
- Border shock plan.
- Economic reactivation.
- Environmental approach.
