Venezuela re-establishes relations with Petro's Colombia

After years of tensions in the diplomacy of both nations, the arrival to power of the ex-terrorist opens the door to Maduro in the neighboring country.

Venezuela will reestablish relations with Colombia. The information was confirmed by Vladimir Padrino, Minister of Defense of Nicolás Maduro's regime. The announcement was made on Tuesday, just two days before the inauguration of former terrorist Gustavo Petro as president of Colombia.

Complicated relationships

The current Venezuelan regime headed by Nicolás Maduro has had complicated relations with neighboring Colombia. Since 2015, diplomacy between the two nations has been in crisis due to the closure of the border crossing, due to clashes between security forces and the civilian population. The dictator of the Miraflores Palace attributed these events to Colombian paramilitarism, and blamed former President Alvaro Uribe.

In 2019, tensions reached a new escalation, when the Venezuelan opposition attempted to bring in food from Colombia from humanitarian aid. Dictator Maduro closed the border crossing, pointing to the work of the opposition as an attempt of foreign "invasion".

With Petro's arrival to power in Colombia, the two leftist leaders have finally reestablished diplomatic relations. Both administrations have in common ideological positions and a past linked to irregular armed groups, contrary to democracy and legality.

Colombia suspends control over Monomers

The Colombian Superintendency of Companies, an entity attached to the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, lifted the "control supervision" measure that it had maintained since 2021 over the Venezuelan company Monómeros. The information was confirmed by the general manager of this fertilizer company, Guillermo Rodríguez, to the newspaper Voz de América,only 48 hours after Gustavo Petro's inauguration.

The Superintendency of Companies has been monitoring Monomeros since the end of 2021, due to reports of possible liquidity risk and alleged corruption. The company has been managed since 2019 by members of the Venezuelan opposition.