Caracas sent the message this Tuesday proposing a direct meeting – and soon – between the presidents Gustavo Petro and Nicolas Maduro, but Bogotá has no desire for it to happen. Of course, the door is open: “That will be squared at an appropriate time,” confirmed the Colombian president.
Indeed, the reactivation of relations between Colombia and Venezuela It is underway, but the House of Nariño gave a two-month time frame for border, trade and cooperation issues to be remedied for the complete normalization of the binational dialogue. As soon as that step is taken, there will be an appointment between Petro and Maduro.
But the new binational era has already begun with the connections between the foreign ministers Alvaro Leyva –from the Bogotá side– and carlos faria -from Caracas-. These approaches began with the Colombian’s trip to the state of Táchira, prior to the investiture.
It was a diplomatic advance to decant the route of the normalization of relations, whose first step will be the total reopening of the border, to later review other action fronts such as commercial and even military ties.
The Miraflores Palace wants to speed up this last point, although Colombia has many reservations. The regime’s Defense Minister himself, Vladimir Padrino, requested contact with his Colombian counterpart, Ivan Velasquezto relaunch that friendship.
However, at least publicly, Velásquez’s portfolio does not have it among its priorities.
The issue of security is one of the most sensitive issues in the bilateral relationship due to the presence of the ELN of the dissidence of the extinct Farc in that territory. In addition, the men in Maduro’s circle of trust – like Godfather himself – have been accused by the United States of belonging to a drug cartel and have even requested their extradition.
Taking another step with the reactivation of embassies and consulates is also being analyzed, although Petro warned that “as long as relations are not normalized, there are no ambassadors.” That affirmation leads to the only firm thing, for now, is that the contacts of the Chancellor Leyva with the other side they are focused, as the president himself said, on the opening of the border.
With all that recipe of moves to follow, the Colombian president did not close the door to a summit with Maduro. Of course, he flatly denied the rumors that spoke of a possible appointment for this weekend.
Another question that remains in the pipeline is the management of Venezuelan Colombo Monomersa binational fertilizer company that the Ministry of Agriculture considers key to food security in the country.
This Tuesday, two hours after Petro said that it would seek to solve the economic problems of that company, the Superintendency of Companies issued a statement in which it exempted that firm from the control measure to which it had been subjected in September 2021 But it left her subject to the degree of surveillance supervision.
The proceedings of the Casa de Nariño are advancing slowly and with a clear objective, while the bench of the Historical Pact in Congress approaches the National Assembly of Venezuela.
All points lead to the same course: in a period that may be no more than two months there will be a photo Petro-Maduro.