Venezuela will reopen its border with Colombia on Tuesday, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez said in a state television address on Monday, after a nearly three-year closure due to political tensions.
By Reuters
Oct 4, 2021
Venezuela closed the border in February 2019 as the Venezuelan opposition, backed by Bogotá and Washington, attempted to bring humanitarian aid into the country its land border with Colombia against the wishes of President Nicolas Maduro.
Venezuela is suffering from a multi-year, hyperinflationary economic collapse.
Venezuelan authorities at the time blocked the Simon Bolivar bridge, one of the main crossings between the two countries, with shipping containers reading “We want peace.”
They said the attempted aid shipment was part of a Washington-backed plot to overthrow Maduro. The opposition and its allies accuse Maduro of rigging his 2018 re-election. Maduro, a socialist, says the election was clean and blames U.S. sanctions for Venezuela’s economic crisis.
“Thinking of our people, in the brotherhood and cooperation between the people of Colombia and Venezuela, [Maduro] has taken the decision to open the crossing for commerce,” Rodríguez said.
Trade between the two countries, which share a porous 2,219 km (1,379-mile) border, once amounted to some $7 billion per year before the border closed, according to Freddy Bernal, a representative of Maduro’s government in the western border state of Táchira.
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Read More: Reuters – Venezuela to reopen border with Colombia afteryears-long closure
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