Colombia opens up to Venezuela under close US surveillance

Gustavo Petro's ability as president will really be put to the test starting this Monday.

Colombia consummates its absolute opening to Venezuela with the reestablishment of trade relations on the border, all under the close surveillance of the United States.

Petro is currently building a new relationship with Nicolás Maduro without completely ignoring the interests of Washington, which wants the Chavista government to return to the negotiating table in Mexico and resume talks with the opposition with a view to presidential elections in 2024 that can be considered fair and democratic.

Colombian officials have met in recent weeks with virtually the entire Clinton list, made up of individuals sanctioned for links to drug trafficking.

There are Maduro himself, Minister Tareck El Aissami or Diosdado Cabello, among others.

Chavista hierarchs of great weight.

The countries already maintain diplomatic and commercial relations after three years of total blackout.

In that time, the Chavista government has been isolated internationally and under heavy sanctions that greatly limits its movements.

That immobility seemed to break last year, when the negotiations began in Mexico, but the Chavistas abruptly abandoned it after the arrest of Colombian Álex Saab, whom Washington considers Maduro's main figurehead.

The scenario now begins to be another.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has led the US to look for alternatives to its energy supply.

Caracas could be an option.

By surprise, Maduro received a delegation of US officials on March 5, the anniversary of the death of Hugo Chávez.

In addition, the arrival of Petro to power in Colombia has also meant a change of course, since the new president is convinced that the strategy of isolating Maduro has been a failure and has not brought any benefit to Colombia.

Petro was last week in New York, where he made it clear that he will not deploy a submissive policy with the United States, at least in terms of rhetoric.

At the UN General Assembly he criticized the war on drugs and the fight against climate change, two issues led by the United States. No previous president had shown such a frontist position as soon as he came into office.

Two days later, he was late for a cocktail party offered by Joe Biden to foreign leaders, so they did not even cross paths.

When Petro was asked about that slip, he replied that it was not a private meeting and that he was not one of those politicians who force them to cross paths with Biden in the toilets.

However, the US is Colombia's main partner and, without it on its side, Petro will hardly be able to carry out a program as ambitious as the one it has in mind.

Washington has a fundamental role in the fight against the drug cartels that the president wants to bring under the law and convince them to lay down their weapons.

And he also has a lot to say in the agrarian reform that he proposes, with which he seeks a better distribution of land in the country.

That is the origin of many of the conflicts that have plagued the nation for decades.

That supposes that Petro must navigate between those two waters.

Caracas wants Bogotá to buy gas, but that conflicts with his speech in favor of renewable energies.

Petro's idea was not to involve Chavismo in the peace negotiations with the ELN, a Colombian guerrilla based on Venezuelan soil, but he has realized that without his mediation it would be impossible and he has already offered Maduro the role of guarantor.

For now, she has already asked him to return to the inter-American justice system, as EL PAÍS reported.

In that case, international justice would again have jurisdiction in Caracas, something that Chavez cut off when they certified that under his mandate Venezuelan democracy had been weakened.

In addition, Biden is confident that Petro will convince Maduro to return to the negotiating table in Mexico.

US officials are not entirely clear that the Chavista government is truly willing to find a way out of the internal political crisis.

His trick is that Petro, who arrives with his hand outstretched, has enough power of persuasion.

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