Maduro estimates 2 billion euros after opening trade with Colombia

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro assured Friday that trade with Colombia will generate 2 billion euros for both countries after the opening of the common border, closed since August 2015.

“1,969 million euros is the estimate of the commercial exchange between Venezuela and Colombia during this 2022, from the opening of their border lines”, Maduro has specified in statements to Globovision.

Previously, the Venezuelan president has announced in his social networks that on September 26 the border between both countries will be reopened.

This announcement puts an end to seven years in which the border has remained practically closed, after Maduro closed the passage between the two Latin American countries during the government of Juan Manuel Santos due to the alleged presence of Colombian paramilitaries in his territory. A crisis that worsened with the expulsion of hundreds of Colombians from Venezuela.

Petro expressed to Maduro his willingness to reestablish “the full exercise of Human Rights” between the two countries upon his arrival to the presidency, after outgoing President Iván Duque put an end to diplomatic relations in February 2019.