Colombia’s government announced it had signed two exploration and production contracts with Shell in offshore areas of the Caribbean Sea that will require the company to make initial investments of US$ 100 million.
A DC-3 model aircraft with registration number HK2494 that had been declared in emergency fell on Saturday to land in the center-east of Colombia after not finding where to land, local media reported.
Colombia and its state-run oil company, Ecopetrol, announced they have signed an offshore exploration and production deal for a nearly 400,000-hectare (988,000-acre) bloc in the Caribbean, the country's first new oil and gas contract in more than four years.
The number of members of the Venezuelan Armed Forces who defected across the Venezuelan-Colombian border since Saturday, February 23, has risen to 326, according to Colombian immigration authorities.
The United States targeted Venezuela's government with new sanctions on Monday and called on allies to freeze the assets of its state-owned oil company PDVSA after deadly violence blocked aid from reaching the crisis-hit country during the weekend.
Brazilian Vice President Hamilton Mourao said on Monday that under no circumstances would his country allow the United States to intervene militarily in Venezuela from Brazilian territory.
“I will return by the airport,” responded the leader of the Venezuelan National Assembly and proclaimed the president in charge, Juan Guaidó, during a press conference in the border city of Cúcuta, Colombia. And is that after the end of the failed humanitarian operation that failed to internalize the oil country tons of food and medicine, many wonders how Guaidó will concretely return to Venezuela.
US Vice President Mike Pence is set to announce “concrete steps” and “clear actions” to address the Venezuela crisis when he meets this Monday with regional leaders in Bogota, Colombia, a senior US administration official said.
Venezuelan soldiers who defected into Colombia on Saturday say they fear for the safety of their families under President Nicolás Maduro's government. Speaking exclusively to the BBC's Orla Guerin, one defector aged 23 says he is worried forces loyal to the president may “lash out against my family”.
In the midst of a tense day in which there have been clashes between volunteers and Venezuelan military officials on the borders of the country, President Nicolás Maduro, considered a usurper by the parliament of his country, announced the “total” cessation of diplomatic relations with Colombia.