Venezuela Announces Commercial Opening of Border with Colombia

The executive vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, announced Monday the commercial opening in the border zone with Colombia located in the state of Táchira.

"As of tomorrow, we will be opening trade between our countries," said the vice president at a press conference.

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In this sense, she stated that in the border of the Táchira region, the countries maintain shared, but differentiated, responsibility regarding the protection of the border of both states.

Rodriguez indicated that despite the planned violence against her country, putting brotherhood and cooperation of the peoples at the forefront, the decision was made to open the binational crossing.

"Historically, the commercial exchange between Colombia and Venezuela has exceeded US$ 7 billion," she pointed out.

In addition, she insisted that a healthy exchange with biosecurity standards would prove beneficial for both countries.

In this regard, she said that the Government has already been vaccinating for a month throughout the border region without distinction from which country the patient originates. "A month ago, President Nicolás Maduro gave the instruction to vaccinate on the border," she added.

"The right thing to do is coordination between governments to face the pandemic. Put aside the politicking. Put aside this obsession of political and ideological intolerance of the Government of Ivan Duque towards Venezuela," she said.

Likewise, she called to concentrate on taking care of the health and life of the border population. Among the measures adopted for the commercial passage, Rodriguez listed the process of disinfection of trucks, merchandise, and the use of vaccination cards for people involved in the exchange.

"We are preparing ourselves in the month of October to have a flexible November and December," she said while considering that this will depend, especially this month in the capital region, on enforcing biosecurity measures.

Finally, the Vice-President also announced that in the almost 800 vaccination centers nationwide, all those over 18 years of age who have not been vaccinated could go without a prior appointment to be immunized against COVID-19.

The vice-president also reminded that the border zone is "a shared responsibility" but that it is currently "differentiated" due to the protection provided by Venezuela against paramilitary, drug trafficking and criminal gangs from Colombia;

The Venezuelan authorities also stated that the measure would allow the reactivation of the daily life to which the inhabitants of Táchira and Norte del Santander have historically been accustomed.