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Colombian President Gustavo Petro traveled to Venezuela on Saturday to meet his opponent Nicolás Maduro, their second face-to-face following a years-long diplomatic freeze.
The trip comes days after the South American neighbors finally reopened their shared border, which has been the subject of a spat over Maduro’s disputed 2018 re-election.
Colombia’s first-ever leftist president arrived in Caracas at lunchtime on Saturday, according to Armando Benedetti, the country’s ambassador to Venezuela.
He will be received by Maduro at the presidential palace for a meeting that Benedetti described as aimed at “continuing to work on a common agenda between the two sister nations”.
This is the second leaders’ meeting since Petro took over from Ivan Duque last August and formally restored diplomatic ties a month later.
Petro also visited Maduro on Nov. 1, when he called for bringing Venezuela back to regional trade alliances and a human rights system.
Venezuela severed diplomatic ties with its neighbor in 2019 after growing tensions with Petro’s predecessor, Juan Manuel Santos, and the conservative Duque – whom Maduro accused of plotting the assassination of his son. plan.
The straw that broke Duque’s back when he backed Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido — being recognized as the winner by dozens of countries in Maduro’s claimed 2018 elections.
Rebuilding relations with Venezuela was one of Petro’s first moves as president.
On Jan. 2, the two countries reopened the last stretch of their 2,200-kilometer (1,350-mile) shared border that was partially closed seven years ago and fully sealed in 2019.
The meeting also came days after Petro announced a ceasefire with Colombia’s last recognized guerrilla group, the ELN, only for the fighters to deny the existence of any such agreement.
Venezuela is the guarantor of ongoing talks between the Colombian government and the National Liberation Army to back Petro Petro’s quest for a “comprehensive peace” in a country battered by decades of civil war.
Petro will meet another leftist leader, Chile’s Gabriel Borric, on a visit to the country on Monday.
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