Colombia’s Border With Venezuela to Reopen After Years of Impasse

Colombia’s volatile border with Venezuela will fully reopen later this month, marking the end of a long impasse and heralding the reactivation of trade.

Beginning Sept. 26 vehicles will be able to cross the border and flights will resume between both nations, Colombia’s Gustavo Petro and Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro announced Friday. While pedestrians have been allowed to cross since last year, the main bridges between both nations have been blocked since 2019, when former Colombian President Ivan Duque, a conservative, recognized Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as head of state, prompting Maduro to sever diplomatic relations.

Petro’s election as Colombia’s first leftist president marked the start of a new relationship with Maduro, who reaffirmed his willingness to “re-establish normalcy” at the border and welcomed Colombia’s Commerce Minister German Umana at the presidential palace in Caracas this week.

Last year, Colombia exported just $331 million of goods to Venezuela, down from $6.1 billion in 2008. Business groups on both sides forecast trade could reach $1.2 billion by year’s end when cross-border commerce resumes.

Concern about the impact of a flood of Colombian goods on Venezuela’s nascent economic recovery and questions over how to unwind current trade relationships led Maduro to slow down plans of what was expected to be an immediate reopening. 

A system of illicit trade at the border -- which is overrun by contraband and largely controlled by gangs -- has also proven difficult to unravel.