Venezuelan Parliament creates a commission to work with the Colombian Senate

The National Assembly (AN, Parliament) of Venezuela created this Thursday a mixed commission to work together with the Senate of Colombia in the normalization of diplomatic and commercial relations between both countries, broken since February 2019.

Members of Parliament Timoteo Zambrano, Julio García, Didalco Bolívar, Carlos Mogollón, Edma Díaz, Grecia Colmenares, Héctor Zambrano, Jesús Suárez, Juan Romero, Gustavo Rangel, Eduardo Semtei, Carlos Martínez, Aurora Paredes, Pedro Carreño, Óscar Ronderos, José Gregorio Correa , Luis Romero and Iris Varela make up said mixed commission.

The president of the Venezuelan Parliament, Jorge Rodríguez, assured in the session that the initiative of the Colombian Senate is a consequence of the “failure” of a policy “against Venezuela.”

“It is an initiative derived from many events, from many paths of Venezuelan and Colombian politics,” he said.

Likewise, he assured that despite the fact that the Caribbean country has had to “suffer aggressions”, those most affected by the breakdown of diplomatic and commercial relations has been Colombia.

“The main losers have been Colombian businessmen, vast areas of Colombia that traded freely with Venezuela,” he said.

The parliamentarian clarified that none of the Parliaments is trying to claim powers from the Executives on the management of diplomatic relations.

“In no way are we referring to assuming the powers that the Executive has to manage the diplomatic and consular relations of Venezuela and we understand that this is not the intention of the Senate,” he said.

Rebuild relationships

Likewise, the opposition deputy Timoteo Zambrano said that the objective is to help the executives of both countries to achieve “routes of understanding.”

“We are not only complying with our constitutional responsibilities, but we have also shown concern to advance in rebuilding relations that have deteriorated a political factor in Colombia,” he said.

The Colombian Senate unanimously approved a proposal on Tuesday that seeks a diplomatic and commercial rapprochement with Venezuela. presented by Senator Jorge Guevara, from the Alianza Verde party, a decision that was communicated by Rodríguez.

The president of the Senate of the Andean country, Juan Diego Gómez, affirmed on Wednesday that the The proposal to create a bilateral legislative commission to seek the normalization of relations with Venezuela is a message to the Executive about the need to advance in this regard.

Border crossings

Venezuela severed relations with Colombia on February 23, 2019, after Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó tried to enter from the Colombian city of Cúcuta leading a caravan of vehicles with humanitarian aid, which ended in violence at the border.

However, in recent weeks there have been some approaches promoted by authorities in border areas, especially in the department of Norte de Santander (Colombia) and the state of Táchira (Venezuela), to reopen the border crossings between these two regions to traffic vehicular.

Even Colombian President Iván Duque affirmed on October 5 that, if there are conditions, his government is willing to reopen consular services in Venezuela. (I)