In a couple of months we will have overcome the important issues

The President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, said this Tuesday (09) that Restoration of diplomatic relations With Venezuela it is a process that can take two months before progress is made on the most important issues.

“I think in two months the most important thing can be over,” said the Colombian president, who took office last Sunday (7).

Petro also ruled out the possibility of holding a meeting in the coming days with the President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, but stated that “it is clear that [existe uma aproximação] Since before I took office, because we are working towards the normalization of relations, it is a process that includes opening the borders, etc.”

The Colombian president also played down the possibility of appointing a new ambassador to Caracas in the short term, saying that “until relations are normalized, there will be no ambassadors.”

“So far, counselor [Álvaro Leyva] Make contact with the government [da Venezuela] To directly open the borders,” Petro said.

On the other hand, Petro stated that there are “more complex issues” in the process of restoring relations with Venezuela, such as the state of the company. monomers. The fertilizer producer belongs to the Venezuelan state, is located in Colombia and has been under the control of the opposition linked to Juan Guaido since 2019.

“It’s a company affected, it almost crashed, and we have to see how we can restart from a technical point of view [a produção]“We have to look at the legal forms, we have to look at the sanctions regime that is still in place,” the representative said. Also owned by Pequiven, the state-owned petrochemical subsidiary of the US-sanctioned PDVSA oil company, Monomeros is also suffering from the effects of the embargo. imposed by Washington.

Petro’s comments came moments after Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez announced that he was working to restore military ties with the Colombian armed forces.

“I received instructions from the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Nicolas Maduro, to make immediate contact with the Colombian Defense Minister to restore our military relations,” Padrino Lopez said.

Petro, for his part, said he expected progress in all kinds of “business, social, family and military” relations.

Relationships have been strained in recent years

Petro’s victory in Colombia’s presidential election was a promise of relief to relations between Bogota and Caracas, as the new president has been speaking since campaigning to get closer to the neighboring country.

In the past five years, while right-wing Ivan Duque was at the helm of the Colombian presidency, episodes of tension between the two countries recurred and reached the complete breakdown of relations in 2019, when the former Colombian president backed Tried to invade Venezuelan territory led by Guaido.

On July 28, Petro’s advisor, Alvaro Leiva, announced, Visit The Venezuelan border state of Tachira meets with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Carlos Faria and discusses the resumption of relations.

At the meeting, ministers agreed to set a date for reopening the borders and appointing new ambassadors shortly after Petro took office.

Editing: Thalita Perez