Colombian President Gustavo Petro said this Friday that after his country and Venezuela appointed their ambassadors, what follows is the opening of the border not only for pedestrians but also for trade and production.
(Armando Benedetti is the new ambassador of Colombia in Venezuela).
This was expressed before beginning courtesy visits to the Council of State, the Constitutional Court, the Superior Council of the Judiciary and the Supreme Court of Justice, the highest courts in Colombia.
Referring to Venezuela, he said that “There is already a pedestrian flow, of people, who no longer resort to the trails, who are even saved from a series of terrible human rights violations in the clandestine crossing to one or another country.”
“There is already a normal flow, now we have to expand that towards the issue of trade, towards the issue of production. And we will continue with an agenda”he expressed.
The Colombian head of state appointed former senator Armando Benedetti as the new ambassador of Colombia to Venezuela, while the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, entrusted this diplomatic position to the former foreign minister and current director of the International Center for Productive Investment (CIIP), Félix Plasencia.
(Former Foreign Minister Félix Plasencia, new ambassador of Venezuela in Colombia).
Colombia and Venezuela, which share a porous 2,219-kilometer border, have not had diplomatic relations since they were broken on February 23, 2019 by order of President Maduro, amid an escalation of tensions with his Colombian counterpart at the time, Iván Duque, for his support of the opposition leader Juan Guaidó.
However, Petro and his chancellor, Álvaro Leyva Durán, have already stated that they will also agree to normalize relations with the Maduro government.
LOWER PRICES FOR FERTILIZERS
Petro, likewise, stated that the opening of the border must be extended to other issues such as trade and production to favor the population of this part of the country.
Regarding the first line, the appointed ambassador Benedetti said yesterday that he was going to surprise the Colombian president “When we reach 10,000 million dollars in commercial exchange, when we benefit the more than 8 million Colombians who live on the border.”
In that direction, Petro said that in order to continue with the agenda with Venezuela, one of his purposes is “Achieving that the price of fertilizers to produce in the field in Colombia can be substantially reduced in order to lower the price of food”alluding to Monómeros, whose production plant operates in Barranquilla, capital of the Colombian department of Atlántico.
(Security, ‘key’ stage before opening the border with Venezuela).
Monomers is a company petrochemical subsidiary of Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) with Colombian state participation, of which Guaidó came to have control in 2019 and is in legal disputes.
Petrochemicals was, during Duque’s term, one of the reasons that generated the greatest confrontation between the two countries, and which Petro places on its list of priorities, although it did not specify what solution it proposes or what Guaidó’s role will be.
EFE
