Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro and his Colombian counterpart Gustavo Petro at a meeting in Caracas on November 1: the end of the diplomatic ice age.
(dpa) After years of ice age, Venezuela and Colombia have resumed commercial air travel between the two neighboring countries. On Monday, a machine operated by the Venezuelan Turpial Airline flew from Caracas to Bogotá, as the Colombian newspaper “El Tiempo” reported. It was the first scheduled flight between the two South American countries in almost three years. In the future, two flights a week will connect the two capitals.
Colombia and Venezuela recently resumed diplomatic relations after years of radio silence. The new left-wing Colombian president and ex-guerrilla Gustavo Petro pushed the rapprochement. As a result, the land borders between the two countries were reopened in September.
Venezuela’s authoritarian President Nicolás Maduro had it closed in 2015 after reports of skirmishes between Colombian criminals and Venezuelan soldiers. He also closed the border in 2019 when opposition leader Juan Guaidó wanted to bring aid into the country. After a brief opening, it was then closed again to slow the spread of the corona virus.