Colombia suddenly reopens border with Venezuela

Since Wednesday 2 June, the Colombian government has lifted restrictions on the border with Venezuela, allowing a "gradual opening" of land and river crossings, the Interior Ministry said.

The Colombian Foreign Ministry had initiated in May the reactivation of the borders with Ecuador, Peru, Brazil and Panama due to "the interest in advancing measures that help economic reactivation" according to the statement in May. In contrast, Venezuela had been excluded, even after 14 months of closure due to the pandemic.

The possibility of reopening the border crossings seemed distant after the publication of a decree on the sanitary emergency that extended the closure until 1 September. However, 24 hours after publication, the government of Iván Duque changed its decision with a resolution "by which the land and river border crossings with the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela are opened", according to the Ministry of the Interior.

The opening of the border with Venezuela will be managed gradually, in accordance with the guidelines of Migración Colombia. To this end, the authority has taken measures to enable transit and control of the pandemic: the number of officers at migration checkpoints regulating entry and exit times has been increased by 25%, accompanied by health authorities, and a system of thermal cameras has been implemented at checkpoints.

The Colombian government's decision comes suddenly, despite the fact that the current diplomatic relationship between the two countries is not the most ideal. Since February 2019, the situation has been escalating, Iván Duque has expressed his support and recognition of Juan Guaidó as president of Venezuela, to which should be added the tense communications with Nicolás Maduro, whom the Colombian president accuses of harbouring dissidents of the FARC and the ELN guerrillas.

The Venezuelan foreign ministry has issued a statement on Colombia's reopening of the border: "Venezuela rejects the Colombian government's decision to unilaterally open the border crossings between the two countries," the foreign minister, Jorge Arreaza, posted on his official Twitter account. He insists that the measures taken by Colombia are a tool to "distract public opinion from the internal problems of the sister nation".

The discrepancies between the two South American countries have manifested themselves on the border, where the lack of effective coordination makes it impossible to work together. The Caracas government calls on the Colombian authorities to establish a bilateral process to facilitate border management, "progress should be made on common issues such as coordination in health protocols, given that the COVID-19 pandemic in Colombia has had a severe impact, while in Venezuela it has been kept under control", states the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry communiqué.

To this end, Venezuela alludes to the provisions of "International Law" for the government of Iván Duque to abandon its unilateral position on border control, "no desperate and unilateral decision is effective, nor does it contribute to the well-being of the Venezuelan and Colombian people who live in the border areas of both countries", concludes the communiqué.
 

Latin America Coordinator: José Antonio Sierra.