Venezuela will support Colombia so that the country achieves a ceasefire with the ELN

Venezuela will support Colombia for there to be a bilateral ceasefire with the guerrillas of ELN, according to a joint statement from both countries. This has been released after the meeting held in Caracas by Colombian President Gustavo Petro and Venezuelan Nicolás Maduro.

The announcement comes after the ELN on Tuesday rejected the existence of the agreement with the Government of Colombia that Petro himself announced. The president indicated on December 31 that this was going to last 6 months, but before the guerrilla declaration, the Executive suspended the decree.

Petro arrived this Saturday at the Miraflores presidential palace, where he was received with all honors by Maduro, and left the place, fired, among others, by the representative of Venezuela for the peace dialogue between the Government of Colombia and the ELN, Carlos Martinez Mendoza.

Until now, the Venezuelan Executive has not reported details of this meeting, which Maduro described as “very fruitful”, through Twitter, where he assured that both countries have a “clear path” of work to obtain “positive results”.

In the three-hour meeting in Caracas, both the presidents also They agreed to complete the full opening of the border between the two countries.

During the “extraordinary meeting”, which ended without declarations, it was agreed to give instructions “to the local and regional border authorities” so that they “complete the process of opening all border crossings”.

Likewise, the heads of state reviewed the “progress achieved in the opening of the border bridges between Colombia and Venezuela that have made it possible to improve the conditions of Colombian and Venezuelan citizens,” said the letter, shared by the Colombian Presidency.

This meeting was held six days after both governments put into operation the Atanasio Girardot binational bridge, also known as Tienditas, which connects the Colombian department of Norte de Santander with the Venezuelan state of Táchira.

Likewise, both countries activated last Wednesday the passage of vehicles on the José Antonio Páez international bridge, which connects the Colombian city of Arauca, capital of the department of the same name, with the Venezuelan town of El Amparo, in Apure.

Venezuela and Colombia resumed their diplomatic relations, broken in 2019, after Petro came to power in the Andean nation, last August, a process that has advanced with the reopening of the border in September, after seven years closed to vehicular traffic, and with the reactivation of the air connection in November.

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