Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro sent Colombia a “brotherly and Bolivarian greeting” on behalf of his country Wednesday commemorating the Battle of Boyaca, one of the most important events in Colombian history.
On the 194th anniversary of the Battle of Boyaca, the battle that officially ended Simon Bolivar’s war for independence from Spain, the Venezuelan president released an open letter on his official blog celebrating the end of Spanish rule in Colombia, encouraging the continued improvement of relations between his country and its neighbor to the northeast and expressing support for the Colombian government’s ongoing peace talks in Havana with the FARC.
MORE: Relationship between Colombia and Venezuela restarted
“The President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro Moros, in the name of the Venezuelan people, sends a fraternal and Bolivarian greeting to the great people of Colombia, commemorating today the 194 years since the glorious Battle of Boyaca, the decisive victory of The Liberator Simon Bolivar,” read the letter.
Also, “On this patriotic day, Maduro sends as well a special greeting to President Juan Manuel Santos, and ratifies his will to avance the accords reached [on July 12th] toward a concrete, cooperative agenda in all areas.”
And, “In the same sense, he reaffirms the decided will of the Venezuelan people to join Colombia in bringing the peace process to a happy and long awaited end.”
Venezuela and Colombia briefly suffered a dip in their bilateral relations earlier this year after a visit to Bogota by Venezuela’s opposition leader spurred a series of accusations over alleged plots to overthrow the government in Caracas.