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Colombian President Gustavo Petro made a surprise meeting with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Saturday, their second meeting after a years-long diplomatic freeze thawed face to face.
The two leaders held talks for about three hours at the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, where Colombia’s first leftist president, Petro Petro, arrived around noon.
The summit comes days after the South American neighbors finally reopened their common border, which has been the subject of a spat over Maduro’s disputed 2018 re-election.
“We had a comprehensive and fruitful meeting,” Maduro tweeted after the meeting.
“We have a clear path of working together that will continue to bring positive results for our country in different areas. Long live the Colombian-Venezuelan alliance!” Maduro said in his message, which Petro later said in his own The message was shared on the Twitter account.
After shaking hands with Maduro, Petro Petro left the palace without speaking to the media.
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 was on a state visit to Chile on Monday and held talks with another leftist leader, Gabriel Boric.
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