its president Colombia Gustavo Petros unexpectedly visited Venezuela on Saturday for talks with his colleague. Nicholas Madurojust days after the border between the two countries reopened and it was announced but then denied that Bogota had reached a ceasefire agreement with Guevara National Liberation Front (ELN) rebels.

The plane of Colombia’s first leftist president landed a few minutes before 14:00 local time (20:00 Greek time), Colombian Ambassador to Venezuela Armando Benedetti said. Petro went to the Miraflores presidential palace for talks with Maduro.

This is the second meeting of the two presidents in Venezuela after the diplomatic restoration of relations between the two countries last September. Petro traveled to Venezuela on November 1 and then met Maduro again at the COP27 climate summit held in Egypt.

Last week, all borders were fully opened, which were closed in 2019, when the previous government of conservative President Ivan Duque broke with Venezuela.

Caracas-Washington relations to warm up

Maduro, until now isolated in the international diplomatic arena (he maintained relations with Russia, Iran, Cuba and Nicaragua), seems to be cashing in on the war in Ukraine.

Although US President Joe Biden does not officially recognize him as President of Venezuela, believing that the 2018 elections were rigged, Caracas’ relations with Washington appear to have warmed up due to the oil crisis caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In addition, although the position of France, which follows the position of Washington, does not hold, French President Emmanuel Macron met in the corridors of COP27 with Maduro, which suggests that the two presidencies communicate with each other. Macron even called Maduro “President” and said he planned to call him.

^{Source: APE-MEB, AFP.}