What will the reopening of the border between Venezuela and Colombia be like?
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(CNN Spanish) -
The president of Colombia, Iván Duque, responded this Wednesday to the initiative of the Senate to form a bilateral commission between the Congress of Colombia and the National Assembly of Venezuela.
"One thing in which we cannot be wrong is that what Colombia is not going to do is recognize a disgraceful, corrupt, drug-trafficking dictatorship," Duque said in Bogotá during a statement with Antony Blinken, Secretary of State of the United States.
"As long as I am the president of Colombia and in defense of the democratic charter and in defense of the values that we have built with many countries, also supported by a complaint against the dictator before the International Criminal Court, we are not going to recognize him," said the leader.
"It would be a surrender to the values that our country has historically defended," he added.
Colombia and Venezuela reopen their borders.
What and how much do they currently trade?
In a letter, to which CNN had access, sent from the Colombian Congress to the National Assembly of Venezuela, the creation of a bilateral commission is proposed for the purpose of working on the "normalization of diplomatic relations, the normalization of relations trade and the verification of good commercial practices between our countries ”. This proposition was approved on Tuesday by the Colombian Senate.
Through a video on his Twitter account, the president of the Colombian Senate, Juan Diego Gómez, said that the proposal "in no way replaces the constitutional powers of handling international relations headed by President Iván Duque, who has been categorical in stating that the Colombian state does not recognize the government of Nicolás Maduro ”.
In his publication on social networks, Gómez added that "from the Senate we maintain our willingness to promote social dialogue."
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During an event held this Wednesday, the questioned president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, celebrated the proposal.
"We applaud this initiative taken by the Legislative Power of Colombia and the Legislative Power of Venezuela," said Maduro.
The president of the Venezuelan National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, affirmed this Wednesday that he sent a letter addressed to the head of the Colombian Senate, Juan Diego Gómez, where he indicates that he received the communication of the initiative “approved unanimously by the Congress of the Republic of Colombia".
"I wish to point out that we are fully prepared to begin the process expressed in said proposal in the terms and times that we agree on for such purposes," said Rodríguez, who read the letter sent in a statement issued by state television VTV.
The official indicated that he called a session in Parliament for this Thursday to discuss the formation of the commission.
- Fernando Ramos from Bogotá and Osmary Hernández from Caracas contributed to this report.
Relations Colombia Venezuela