Some 1,361 vehicles, including cars and motorcycles, They have circulated through the Atanasio Girardot binational bridge, also known as Tienditas, which connects Venezuela with Colombia, since its inauguration on January 1, 2023, the Venezuelan Transportation Minister Ramón Velásquez reported on Monday.
(See: Venezuela works on building a stable exchange system).
“More than 977 vehicles and 384 motorcycles have circulated after the opening of the Atanasio Girardot bridge yesterday between Venezuela and Colombia“said the official through his Twitter account.
The minister shared a photograph in which a line of vehicles can be seen waiting their turn to travel through one of the eight bridge access ticket offices.
Both countries materialized, on Sunday, January 1, the “total opening” of their border with the inauguration of this bridge, which connects the Venezuelan state of Táchira with the Colombian department of Norte de Santander, which will allow the passage of vehicles of all kinds, something that has not happened since 2015.
(See: Colombia-Venezuela border: this was the reopening of Tienditas).
Commercial operations are supervised, on the Venezuelan side, by 18 government institutions, which guarantee that the procedures comply with the regulations of each nation, as reported this Sunday by the governor of Táchira, Freddy Bernal.
Since the beginning of December, when the “total reopening” of the border was announced, Venezuela has undertaken remodeling and restoration works, that began with the removal of the containers that were set up as a barrier almost four years ago in the midst of political tensions with the then Colombian president, Iván Duque.
Diplomatic relations between the two nations, broken in February 2019, were reestablished in August 2022, and the business reopening was completed on September 26 with the reactivation of the passage through two other border bridges, the Simón Bolívar and the Francisco de Paula Santander.
(See: What comes after the end of the ‘interim government’ of Guaidó in Venezuela).
The governor of the Venezuelan state of Táchira, Freddie Bernal, described the opening of the Tienditas binational bridge as successful on Monday.
little shops
EFE
“Without a doubt, the relations between President (Gustavo) Petro and President Nicolás Maduro have been a success, and beyond that, brotherhood, growth and prosperity“, said the official in a video posted on his Instagram account.
(See: Business with Venezuela would be normalized until 2024).
He also said that they informed the citizens about the “gaps or confusions“, without detailing which ones, that have been presented at the time of crossing from one country to another.
EFE
