Venezuela announces the reestablishment of military relations with Colombia

The President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, together with the Defense Minister, Vladimir Padrino López, and members of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces.

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Two days after the inauguration of President Gustavo Petro, Venezuela takes concrete steps to restore relations with Colombia.

Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino announced on Tuesday that he received orders from Nicolás Maduro to "immediately" reestablish military relations with the new Colombian authorities, in particular that of his counterpart Iván Velásquez Gómez.

The gesture implies a thaw between both nations, which spent more than seven years blocking border crossings and, since February 23, 2019, with diplomatic and commercial relations totally broken as a result of the internationally recognized political crisis that unleashed the challenge of the opposition Juan Guaidó by declaring himself interim president with the support of the now former Colombian president Iván Duque.

"I have received instructions from the commander in chief of the FANB [Bolivarian National Armed Forces], Nicolás Maduro, to establish immediate contact with the Colombian Defense Minister to reestablish our military relations," the military chief said in a statement released by the Twitter account of the Armed Forces.

Since the victory of the leftist Petro last June, the resumption of relations was expected, especially commercial relations, for which businessmen from both countries had been lobbying at a meeting in the city of San Cristóbal, in the state of Táchira, a few days after the second round of the presidential elections in Colombia.

But the military exchange between the two nations is especially crucial, due to the migration crisis that has generated more than 6 million Venezuelans who have left in search of a better life and the increase in organized crime along the 2,200 kilometers of border.

The Chavista narrative has also repeatedly accused Colombia of orchestrating and harboring military operations, conspiracies and attacks against Maduro.

Last week, those allegedly involved in an assassination attempt that occurred in Caracas in 2018 were sentenced to prison;

Among them is former deputy Juan Requesens, considered a political prisoner, and a group of soldiers and civilians sentenced to 30 years in prison.

As part of this trial, the extradition of opposition leader Julio Borges, leader of Primero Justicia, a refugee in Colombia since 2017, was also requested.

In recent years, a large part of the persecuted politicians of the Maduro government have ended up in Colombia, including party leaders and journalists, who have arrived in that country as exiles, and this political understanding between the two leaders has raised concerns about their continued status and protection.

Since 2020, Venezuela has undertaken a strong military operation on the southern border to combat what they have called Tancol: Colombian drug-trafficking armed terrorists, an acronym invented by Chavismo at the same time that it has intervened in the war for control of the territory that groups are also waging. of the ELN guerrilla and the dissidents of the extinct FARC, whose presence in Venezuela has increased.

In this context, at least three leaders of the former FARC have been assassinated in the country, and the presence of anti-personnel mines in the territories controlled by these groups has also been revealed.

In March of last year, more than 6,000 people were displaced from Apure to the Colombian town of Arauquita, fleeing the violence of Venezuelan military operations.

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