MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Venezuela reopens borders with Colombia and Brazil

The two borders had been closed due to an alleged conspiracy against Maduro

Venezuela's Bolivarian regime Monday reopened the borders with Colombia and Brazil it had closed ahead of Friday's inauguration of Nicolás Maduro as President for a third consecutive six-year term. The measure had been adopted due to an alleged “international conspiracy” following the controversial July 28, 2024, elections the Opposition Unitarian Democratic Platform (PUD) of retired diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia also claimed to have won.

“The border, once again, open. The state and the country in total peace and tranquility, in perfect civic, military, police fusion,” announced Táchira State's Chavista Governor Freddy Bernal on Instagram from a migration post bordering Colombia. According to local media, the closure resulted in trade losses of nearly US$ 3.5 million.

“The country in peace, which is what we all want, peace for Venezuela, peace for Colombia, that violence does not come, that threats from Colombia no longer come, that the nefarious Álvaro Uribe does not come to be inventing invasions, here nobody wants war, here nobody wants invasions,” added Bernal about statements by the former Colombian ruler, who called an international military intervention in Venezuela.

Colombia and Venezuela share a 2,219-kilometer border comprising seven Colombian departments and four Venezuelan states. Some 12 million people reportedly reside on either side of that line.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro said his government “would maintain diplomatic relations” with Caracas despite Venezuelans not being allowed to vote freely in addition to opposition leader María Corina Machado being deprived of her “right to elect and be elected. The leftwing ruler also wrote on X that he would seek ”a democratic dialogue in Colombia and Venezuela“ in addition to ”the respect of the peoples.“

”Diplomatic relations are for peoples to unite and not suffer from the disagreements of their governments,” Petro also argued.

Later Monday, Venezuela's Foreign Ministry announced the reopening of the border with the Brazilian state of Roraima, blocked Friday by the Bolivarian military. At the same time, Brazilian authorities ordered a 90-day extension -until April 10- of the troop deployment in areas bordering Venezuela, citing security reasons. Local analysts believe one of the reasons for this attitude was to hold a possible inflow of Venezuelan migrants fleeing the Chavista regime.

Neither Brazil nor Colombia have recognized Maduro's electoral win, although both of them fell short of calling González Urrutia President-elect as Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, the United States, and the European Union, among others, did.