To the relations between Venezuela It is Colombia were reestablished in the year 2022, three years after their rupture. The main cause that led to the suspension of the dialogue between the two South American countries was the support given by the president Colombian man Iván Duque to Venezuela's self-declared interim president Juan Guaidó in 2019, shortly after the president's inauguration elected Nicolas Maduro.
Countries today experience a common problem in their border region, which is conflict between groups dissidents from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ENL). The consequences of these conflicts are: an increase in the number of refugees and people moving towards other regions within the country itself; higher security expenses; and a large number of people wounded and killed, including soldiers, guerrillas and civilians.
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Topics of this article
- 1 - Summary of relations between Venezuela and Colombia
- 2 - Causes of conflicts between Venezuela and Colombia
- 3 - History of relations between Venezuela and Colombia
- 4 - Disruption of relations between Venezuela and Colombia
- 5 - Impacts of conflicts between Venezuela and Colombia
- 6 - Relations between Venezuela and Colombia today
Summary on relations between Venezuela and Colombia
The current conflicts that take place on the border between Venezuela and Colombia are the result of territorial disputes between dissident groups of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ENL).
There was an escalation in tensions in the year 2021.
In the past, there has been mutual blame between the Venezuelan and Colombian governments regarding the conflicts.
Venezuela and Colombia are experiencing moments of rupture and strengthening of diplomatic and political ties since, at least, the end of the 1990s.
The most recent break in relations took place in 2019, when then-Colombian President Iván Duque showed support for Juan Guaidó, Venezuela's self-declared interim president and part of the opposition to the current government.
In response, Venezuelan President-elect Nicolás Maduro decreed the suspension of political and diplomatic relations between the countries.
Venezuela and Colombia officially resumed relations on August 28, 2022.
Border conflicts have not ceased, and the guarantee of stabilization in the region is one of the promises made in view of the reopening of dialogue between the countries.
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Causes of conflicts between Venezuela and Colombia
Venezuela and Colombia are neighboring countries with a history of tensions triggered by reasons such as sovereignty; political-ideological disagreementss — which includes the close relationship between Colombians and U.S and the strong opposition that the most recent Venezuelan governments have towards American politics and diplomacy —; It isterritorial disputes triggered in the border region. These territorial disputes, however, are not necessarily linked to national governments per se, although they have raised tensions between them.
The Venezuelan and Colombian territories share a border of 2219 km, located in the northwest portion of South America. It is about a area historically used as a route to drug traffickingIt is occupied by two rival guerrillas since the 1980s.
The first of these is the National Liberation Army (ELN), which has been operating since the 1960s and is located in different parts of the country, including on the border with Venezuela, notably in region of the department of Arauca, where there was an escalation of tensions with the neighboring nation in 2008, and of Apure, in the territory Venezuelan.
The second active guerrilla in Colombia is formed by dissidents of the Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc). We speak of dissidents because, in 2016, the FARC, after many years of intense internal conflicts in the country, signed a second peace agreement with the Colombian government that, unlike the first that had been proposed a few years earlier through a plebiscite, was successful with most members of the guerrilla. In this case, approval depended on Congress, and not on popular consultation.
The agreement resulted, among others, in the disarmament of the group, the reintegration of hundreds of people who belonged to the FARC to the activities of the civil society, in addition to the creation of the Common Revolutionary Alternative Force party, which today has 10 seats in Congress Colombian. However, not all guerrilla members accepted the agreement, remaining in the territories, on the border with Venezuela, where the outbreaks of the most recent conflicts are located, staggered in 2021 and at the beginning of 2022.
The conflicts in the region happen due to the territorial dispute between two different groups formed by FARC dissidents and also between these groups and the ELN, ending an agreement established at the beginning of the past decade. In addition to controlling land, the groups are fighting for control over trafficking and mining activities in the region..|1|
The arrival of President Iván Duque to power in Colombia, in 2018, promoted a rupture with the groups guerrillas, in addition to the weakening of relations with Venezuela under the government of Nicolás Maduro, once that there was the accusation that the Venezuelan president protected and helped to strengthendas FARC mainly.
Since then there has been a increase in violence in the border region, and, in 2021, the Venezuelan army moved there in an attempt to contain the conflicts, which ended up resulting in clashes between the military and guerrilla groups.
There were deaths of Venezuelan soldiers, some of which Maduro accused were caused by landmines planted by groups that would have some kind of connection with the Colombian president.|2| In early 2022, conflicts gained greater proportions than in the previous year, increasing the feeling of fear and insecurity of the population living in border areas.
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History of relations between Venezuela and Colombia
Diplomatic tensions between Venezuela and Colombia did not start recently. On the contrary, they have been happening since at least the 1980s and 1990s, with moments marked by the imminence of war between them.
The first of these moments happened in 1987, as a result of a dispute over maritime territories in the region of gcaribbean olf, in the North Atlantic. Although both countries had prepared for a direct confrontation, the solution came through diplomatic channels.
A arrival of Hugo Chavezto the presidency of Venezuela, in 1999, was already marked by a first point of disagreement between the countries. Faced with internal conflicts in Colombia that had been going on for decades, the newly sworn-in Venezuelan president adopted a neutral position.
That same year, the neighboring country signed the Plan Colombia — an agreement with the United States for the implementation of measures that would help guarantee Colombian security in the face of guerrilla groups and drug trafficking.
In 2002, a brief diplomatic crisis ensued when the Colombia granted asylum to Pedro Carmona, a Venezuelan businessman who briefly assumed the presidency in the country during an attempted coup d'état. A few days after that attempt, however, Chávez resumed his post.
In early 2005, there was a suspension of commercial relations between the countries by Venezuela when the FARC spokesperson, Rodrigo Granada, was captured in the city of Caracas, the Venezuelan capital. Chávez attributed this act, which was not approved by the Venezuelan government, to the United States, then with a strong presence in the neighboring country, and withdrew the Venezuelan ambassador from Bogotá.
The year 2006 represented the strengthening of trade ties between the countries, which generated very positive results on both sides. A year later, however, relations weakened again in the face of the actions of the FARC and the expansion of the US military presence in Colombia under the justification of combating the drug trafficking.
During this period, there were already accusations of aid to the FARC by the Venezuelans in accessing weapons and shelter, culminating in the diplomatic breakup in 2010, after the Colombian government of Álvaro Uribe made these accusations public at the summit of the Organization of American States (OAS). The arrival of Juan Manuel Santos to power in Colombia led to the resumption of diplomatic and trade relations still in 2010.
However, Chávez's death in 2013 ushered in a new political period in Venezuela, now under the government of Nicolás Maduro, and tensions have resumed. As a measure to combat smuggling, drug trafficking and paramilitary groups, borders between countries were partially closed in 2015 and reopened again in 2016.|3|
However, the Venezuelan elections would be the epicenter of new diplomatic crisis a year later, leading to the most recent break in relations between the countries.
Severance of relations between Venezuela and Colombia
With regard to relations between Venezuela and Colombia,O most recent breakup happened at the beginning of 2019.
The roots of the new rupture are found in the Venezuelan presidential elections, held in the previous year under a lot of political and social turmoil and with high abstention, since only 46% of voters registered people turned out to the polls, in addition to allegations of fraud in the election that re-elected Nicolás Maduro with almost 68% of the votes valid.
Shortly after Maduro's inauguration, the leader of the opposition and also president of the National Assembly, Juan Guaidó, declared himself interim (or provisional) president of Venezuela, garnering the support of several other heads of state, one of them being Iván Duque, of Colombia.
The Colombian president even shared a platform with Guaidó in the city of Cúcuta, on the border with Venezuela. Duque's position was taken with great offense by Maduro. Like this, offended by the position of Iván Duque, Mature decreed the rupture of relations political and diplomatic ties between Venezuela and Colombia.
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Impacts of the conflicts between Venezuela and Colombia
The conflicts that take place on the border of Venezuela with Colombia between guerrilla groups have already caused the death of 255 people in the region in the year 2022 alone, a number greater than that recorded in 2021, which was 187 deaths. Among the fatal victims are soldiers who were sent to the place with the aim of mitigating the clashes, guerrillas and also civilians.
The impacts of both direct conflicts between armed groups and the comings and goings in relations between countries are also economic and social, as listed below.
Greater government spending on both sides to combat guerrilla groups and also drug trafficking and unauthorized mineral exploration on the borders.
Economic losses resulting from the closing of borders and the disruption or pause in trade relations.
Expansion of the flow of Colombian and Venezuelan refugees towards other countries.
Increase in the flow of people migrating from border regions to other areas within the country, seeking safer regions to live.
Diplomatic impasses with other countries that are not directly involved in the conflicts.
Relations between Venezuela and Colombia today
Relations between Venezuela and Colombia were reestablished in 2022, three years after the announcement of the breaking of diplomatic and political ties. The announcement of a resumption was made in July, and, on August 28, 2022, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Venezuela, Rander Peña Ramírez, and the Colombian ambassador in the country, Armando Benedetti, met for the officialization of the return.
It should be noted that there was commitment from both parties in the performance in measures aimed at endingin conflicts between the FARC dissident groups and the ELN, underway on the border between the territories of Venezuela and Colombia.
image credit
[1] bgrocker / Shutterstock
Grades
|1| AFP. Violence on the border between Colombia and Venezuela leaves 255 dead in 2022. O Globo Newspaper, 10 Aug. 2022. Available here.
|2| GONÇALVES, Mariana. Decades of neglect and broken relations create a war zone on the border between Colombia and Venezuela. The globe, 06 Apr. 2021. Available here.
|3| ESSAY. Colombia and Venezuela: the key moments of a tumultuous relationship that is now renewed. BBC World, 29 Aug. 2022. Available here.
By Paloma Guitarrara
Geography Teacher
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