Gustavo Petro and Nicolas Maduro held the first meeting of presidents of both countries in six years. Colombia will encourage the return of Venezuela to Andean Community of Nations (CAN) and the inter-American human rights system, and both countries will seek a joint task to combat the “mafias” that operate on the border to restore the vigor of the historic bilateral trade. And, in addition, they will carry a common position in defense of the Amazon forest to the next climate summit to be held in Egypt.
The agreements were announced by Petro and Maduro after their two-hour meeting in Caracas, which marked the highest point of the recomposition of relationships, broken since 2019 and recovered from the arrival at the Palacio de Nariño of the former mayor of Bogotá.
a common destiny
“We are two countries that have a mark in history for brotherhood and understanding. Our common destiny is between our peoples,” Maduro opened. the declaration before the press, which Petro corresponded with the sentence that “the path is that of the Good neighborand that means articulating common policies, a difficult path, but one that has to be walked”.
From the Ayacucho Hall of the Venezuelan government headquarters, Maduro stressed that it was “a fruitful, intense and extensive day” with Petro and his delegation.
“We have discussed various topics of bilateral cooperation between Colombia and Venezuela“, highlighted Maduro, who, without detailing the content of the conversation, reviewed that there was talk of “cooperation between (Venezuelan companies) Monómeros, Pequiven and all the work that has to do with fertilizers.”
The Bolivarian president said that between the two countries there is “a set of important issues that we have to work on from now on related to trade, border security, fight against drug trafficking and in terms of relationships.
rebuild borders
Petro later announced that the two countries will rebuild their relationships “at the intelligence level” to “hit the owners of capital” generated by drug trafficking as a step to recover border security.
“That road begins” by “rebuild the borderswhich are in the hands of the mafias, of the multi-crime organizations,” he judged.
“It is the expression of a failure in something called the ‘war on drugs’ that began 50 years ago and left us with democratic destabilization, millions of deaths and lost territories. We are going to rebuild relations at the intelligence level, to hit not to the narco worker, but to the owners of capital. They are dangerous for political stabilization,” said the Colombian.
Petro considered that the matter demands “a great Latin American conference of presidents to examine the failure of that policy” and insisted on the need for the extensive Colombian-Venezuelan border “to recover its commercial vigor.”
For this, a meeting in Cartagena between businessmen and merchants from the two countries “so that they themselves build their ties and lay the foundations for a powerful and popular trade.”
He also advanced a common position at the meeting of the UN Conference on Climate Change (COP27), next week in Egypt, in defense of the Amazon forest.
He said in this regard that “a common effort is one of the agreements” and hoped that “Brazil joins a fight that should be humanity’s: to recover the jungle as a key pillar for the world’s climate.” The president-elect, Lula da Silva, will participate in this summit.
Regarding the CAN, Petro noted that Caracas was among the founding members and that the agreement represented “the platform that allowed the mild industrialization, the industrializing babble” of the region, which “later weakened.” We are going to invite Ecuador, Chile, Peru to accept the reinstatement of Venezuela with all its rights and duties,” the Colombian president announced.
“Good news,” Maduro stressed. Caracas left the Andean bloc in 2006.
Petro also stated that “the barbarism of the world and the advance of authoritarianism that responds with bullets to migrants show the full validity for the progressivism of the world to defend the old precepts” of the Human Rights Convention and “strengthen that system, even under the new signs of the times”.
“The world finds nothing but war, xenophobia… Today Latin America is a beacon of democracy. It is up to us to be a beacon. And illuminate a new century of lights. If not, comes extinction. We owe ourselves that effort,” he remarked.
He called, therefore, to “build world history”, for which the leaders must be “bold, seductive, open, broad.” “Because we don’t have recipes. Just instinct, thoughts, history,” Petro concluded.
“There were six years of political vacuum between two neighbors, Colombia and Venezuela”Petro had pointed out from a military airport in Bogotá before leaving for the Venezuelan capital. “There’s a lot to talk about, obviously, after so long,” he added then.
The Colombian Air Force plane that took Petro landed at the Simón Bolívar airport in Caracas, where Vice President Delcy Rodríguez and Foreign Minister Carlos Faría waited for him. Together they walked the red carpet, with a military formation as an escort.
Among those who accompanied the visiting president were the Chief of Staff, Laura Sarabia, and Foreign Minister Álvaro Leyva.
Maduro waited for him at the gates of the Miraflores Palace, where the two anthems were sung and military honors were paid to Petro in the so-called “golden area” of the executive headquarters. The two presidents dressed almost identically, in dark pants and white shirts.
Already in one of the gardens, the Caracas orchestra “Alma llanera” entertained the leaders with some songs and then both visited a cultural exhibition, before lunch that represented the central moment of the day.
The last meeting between the heads of state of both countries had been in August 2016, just over 74 months ago, an unusual time for two border nations with so many common interests. On August 11 of that year, Maduro received his then-couple Juan Manuel Santos in the city of Puerto Ordaz.