Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro this Sunday called on Colombia to reopen the common border against plans by the Ivan Duke government to reopen on June 1, and warned that “nothing will work unilaterally.”
“For good, with restrictions, open borders. For bad, there is nothing,” Maduro said, accusing the Duke of trying to “distract the border” to “divert attention” from the massive protests that are paralyzing his country.
“They are talking about unilaterally opening the border from Colombia. I tell them: nothing is going to work unilaterally,” he said on state television.
Socialist President Gov. 19 expressed concern about the epidemic, for which he proposed to establish “biosecurity measures” at crossroads.
Colombia reopened land, river and sea borders that had been closed for more than a year due to re-infection last Wednesday, except those shared with Venezuela. However, Ecuador and Panama adhered to the restrictions.
Justified the reopening of Colombia as a way to make further progress in the “economic restructuring” of the border areas.
The Colombian Foreign Ministry announced on Twitter that officials were “exploring the possibility of opening the border with Venezuela in line with special measures as of June 1”. Migration announced that it had inspected major international bridges.
Venezuela severed ties with Colombia in February 2019 after the Duke approved the appointment of opposition leader Juan Guide as Venezuela’s acting president to replace Maduro.
The two countries share a border of 2,200 km, with dozens of illegal crossings controlled by smugglers and armed groups. Clashes between the Venezuelan army and Colombia have been irregular, with the press and opposition parties identifying dissident FIRC guerrillas as dissidents who have been recorded in Abur (western Venezuela) in recent weeks, as 16 members of the Venezuelan armed forces have been killed, and thousands of civilians have been displaced.
With a population of over 50 million, Colombia records more than three million epidemics and 84,000 deaths from Govt-19.
In Venezuela, with 30 million, 220,000 cases and nearly 2,500 deaths were reported on Saturday, with figures from organizations such as Human Rights Watch condemning the overestimation.
