Venezuela and Colombia Agree to Gradual Reopening of Border

Venezuela and Colombia agree to reopen pedestrian border crossings between their countries, a year after Venezuela closed the frontier in a dispute over security and smuggling.

Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro, right, and Colombian counterpart Juan Manuel Santos, pose for photos after Santos arrived for their meeting in Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016.

The Colombian president said that negotiations would continue to allow a full reopening of the border, a sign of warming relations.

The agreement Thursday by presidents Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela and Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia called for the border to be opened 15 hours a day.

They reached the deal at talks in the eastern Venezuelan town of Puerto Ordaz. Except for occasional opening, the 2,219-kilometer border between the two countries has remained closed for a year.

The weekend is sure to see a crush of Venezuelans flooding into Colombia to buy food and medicine.

The U-turn comes as Venezuela is experiencing severe shortages of basic foodstuffs and medicines, amid a crippling economic crisis caused by the crash in global oil prices.

The porous border has always been a haven for smuggling of everything from Venezuela’s price-controlled toothpaste and pasta to illegal drugs and weapons.

The genesis of new Colombian efforts at diplomatic cooperation comes in the wake of tens of thousands of Venezuelans rushing into Colombia in July, when the Maduro regime temporarily allowed border crossings. As a result of that desperate weekend, Colombia chose to no longer green-light temporary border re-openings and instead, Colombian Minister of Foreign Affairs Maria Angela Holguin said, “Let’s work so that the opening, the next opening, is definitive”. Many had driven in caravans through the night for a chance at snagging precious goods.

The 2,200-kilometer (1,350-mile) border has always been plagued by drug and contraband smuggling, another reason Maduro had cited for last year’s closing.

Santos said his government had agreed to an exchange of customs records, as part of efforts to crack down on the illicit trade in Venezuela’s heavily subsidised petrol. Some people were given special permission to cross, including students attending school in Colombia and some chronically ill patients. At the time he said the measure was necessary in order to control the smuggling of subsidized food out of Venezuela. “It will be a temporary opening schedule while we learn and adapt to the decisions, so that each step we take will be accurate and positive”.