Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodriguez will visit Colombia within two weeks to deepen cooperation between the two neighboring countries, according to government officials.
The visit will come shortly after the US military kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and US President Donald Trump vowed to assume control over the country’s oil industry.
At a public protest against US imperialism, President Gustavo Petro suggested on Wednesday that the Colombian government would like to play a mediating role in the crisis that followed the abduction, and promote “peace and reconciliation” in the neighboring country.
We want to establish a tripartite dialogue, hopefully on a global scale, to stabilize Venezuelan society, which, like Colombia, could erupt into violence among its own people.
President Gustavo Petro
Ahead of the protest, Petro talked with Trump in an attempt to decrease tensions between his government and that of the US.
In an interview with newspaper El Espectador, Interior Minister Armando Benedetti said that “peace in Venezuela depends on peace in Colombia and peace in Colombia depend on peace in Venezuela.”
“That is why [the president] said he was offering to be a mediator on the issue of Venezuela,” Benedetti told the newspaper.
Brazilian President Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva, whose country border Venezuela to the south, said that he has also been talking to Petro about the situation in their common neighbor.
“Brazil and Colombia reaffirmed their intention to continue cooperating for peace and stability in Venezuela, a country with which we share extensive borders,” said Lula.
Petro is also expected to seek a renewed commitment from the Venezuelan government for joint operations against illegal armed groups like the ELN in the border region.
The ELN and FARC dissident groups have long benefited from the historic neglect suffered by communities along the 2,200-kilometer border between Venezuela and Colombia.
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