Colombia aims to surpass $1 billion in trade with Venezuela

Trade between Colombia and Venezuela has increased and it is estimated that by the end of 2024 the figure will exceed 1 billion dollars, as it is close to 700 million dollars, said Colombian Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo on Friday.

“A very interesting fact from the Ministry of Commerce that Procolombia gave us is that in these 10 years that we had ups and downs in the diplomatic relationship with Venezuela, including border closures, we stopped receiving 1,000 million dollars from the exchange between the two countries,” said Murillo after a meeting with the governors of the border area with Venezuela, held in Cúcuta, capital of Norte de Santander.

The working meeting was held after several postponements and discussed the situation in the oil-producing country and its impact on the border.

Murillo recalled that trade between Colombia and Venezuela was worth 7 billion dollars a year and then dropped to 200 million, but now “with the reestablishment of relations and the consolidation of these dialogues, we are close to 700 million,” he said.

The keys to continue growing

The Colombian foreign minister was emphatic in stating that revitalizing the border, the most commercially active in the country, has three axes. The first is to keep the border open and dynamic, and to strengthen the integration mechanisms.

The second is to continue advancing in “the consolidation and negotiation of peace talks, which is very important, and third, we must continue facilitating understanding between Venezuelans through dialogue for political peace in Venezuela, and it is very important to strengthen not only this dialogue between Bogotá and Caracas, but also between the authorities and communities on the border of the binational zone,” Murillo said.

The governors of Arauca and Norte de Santander and delegates from the governorates of Boyacá, Cesar, Guainía and La Guajira participated in the meeting, where they analyzed the progress of relations between both countries and the current situation.

Venezuela and Colombia resumed diplomatic relations, broken in 2019, after President Gustavo Petro came to power, a process that has advanced with the reopening of the border in September, after seven years closed to vehicles, and with the reactivation of the air connection in November.

Dialogues with the ELN and the FARC

The governor of Norte de Santander, William Villamizar, said that he agrees with the other governors that a good relationship with Venezuela should be maintained, that the border should be kept open and that a commercial relationship should continue to be promoted, while they asked to continue with the peace negotiations with the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla and the FARC dissidents, who have a presence in this border area.

“That is why we are asking the foreign minister to continue the dialogue with the FARC (dissidents) and also to find ways to restart dialogue with the ELN,” Villamizar said.

He recalled that “during the time when there was a bilateral ceasefire (which ended with the ELN on August 3) the attacks and murders were reduced, and today (…) we regret the deaths of soldiers and police in recent days.”

The peace negotiations between the government and the guerrillas are going through a critical moment due to the ELN’s demands that the Executive remove them from the list of terrorist groups, among other disagreements.