In February 2019, Caracas had cut the terrestrial link between the two countries, opposite ideologically but who share 2,200 kilometers of common borders.
Le Monde with AFP
The political and diplomatic crisis between Caracas and Bogota seems to be about to fade. Venezuela announced, Monday, October 4, the reopening of its land borders with its Colombian neighbor, more than two years after their closure.
“From tomorrow [Tuesday], we will proceed with a commercial opening between our two countries,” said Vice-President Delcy Rodriguez on National Television, explaining that it was “turn the page” .
During the morning, lifts had removed the containers that had been blocking the Simon Bolivar Bridge for two years, between the Venezuelan city of San Antonio de Tachira and Cucuta, in Colombia, found a journalist of the Agence France-Press (AFP).
In 2019, some 40,0000 people were transiting each day by this very symbolic work. Its blockage had generated Venezuelan side disorders. However, it is unlikely that traffic resumes Tuesday, the Caracas Agenda does not necessarily correspond with that of Bogota.
“The passage of vehicles on international bridges will only be authorized after technical controls (…) given the long term” of use, said a statement from the Colombian government, in the evening, Monday.
A unilateral opening in June
In June, Bogota had reopened unilateral borders. President Maduro then described the opening of “untimely”, claiming a “controlled openness”.
Venezuela had closed the land borders in February 2019, during the iron arm between President Nicolas Maduro and the opposition leader Juan Guaido, recognized as Acting President by some fifty countries, including Colombia, including Colombia, Thus causing the breaking by Caracas of diplomatic relations with Bogota. But the border was already almost completely closed since 2015, due to the tension between the two neighbors.
Opposed ideologically, these two countries have 2,200 kilometers of common borders. The closure of land boundaries continued with the CVIV-19 epidemic, but thousands of people continue to clandestinely between the two countries.
“It’s time we can go and come freely without problems with our Colombian brothers,” said AFP Rafael Gomez, the owner of a parking for trucks at the border. He entrusted that the closure of the bridge had heavily affected the local economy, heavily dependent on the transit.