{"id":27663,"date":"2016-08-12T03:03:21","date_gmt":"2016-08-12T03:03:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/venezuela-and-colombia-to-reopen-border-crossings\/"},"modified":"2016-08-12T03:03:07","modified_gmt":"2016-08-12T03:03:07","slug":"venezuela-and-colombia-to-reopen-border-crossings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/venezuela-and-colombia-to-reopen-border-crossings\/","title":{"rendered":"Venezuela and Colombia to reopen border crossings"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Decision comes a year after frontier was closed by Venezuela, now facing severe shortages due to an economic crisis.}<\/p>\n

Venezuela and Colombia have agreed to reopen pedestrian border crossings between their countries, a year after Venezuela closed the frontier in a dispute over security and smuggling.<\/p>\n

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said on Thursday that he and his Venezuelan counterpart agreed to open five pedestrian crossings for 15 hours a day from Saturday.<\/p>\n

“What we are going to do is open the border gradually,” Santos said after talks with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.<\/p>\n

“It will be a temporary opening schedule while we learn and adapt to the decisions so that each step we take will be accurate and positive.”<\/p>\n

Maduro said that he hoped the reopening would lead to a “new frontier of peace” and “a new beginning for economic and trade relations”.<\/p>\n

Santos said they would continue discussions about opening up the border to cargo vehicles.<\/p>\n

He said they were discussing the possibility of setting up Venezuelan petrol stations on the Colombian side where Venezuela could sell its fuel.<\/p>\n

At the talks in the eastern Venezuelan town of Puerto Ordaz, the leaders said they reviewed reports by their advisers on cross-border smuggling and security.<\/p>\n

Security was the top issue at the border, Santos said.<\/p>\n

The two countries this week set up a joint initiative to fight organised crime.<\/p>\n

“This is very important because it is going to make it possible for the rest of the border to operate peacefully,” he said.<\/p>\n

Santos said the two countries also agreed to exchange customs information to fight petrol smuggling – one reason Maduro cited for closing the border.<\/p>\n

Maduro sealed off his country’s 2,200km western border on August 19 last year after an attack on a Venezuelan army patrol in which three people were wounded.<\/p>\n

He said at the time that right-wing paramilitaries from Colombia were to blame.<\/p>\n

Maduro briefly reopened the border in recent weeks to allow Venezuelans to stock up on food, medicine and other basic supplies.<\/p>\n

Tens of thousands of Venezuelans streamed into the Colombian city of Cucuta last month, taking advantage of the temporary reopening.<\/p>\n

Venezuela is facing severe shortages in an economic crisis fuelled by the global crash in the price of oil, its main export.<\/p>\n

Maduro’s opponents also accuse him of mishandling the state-led economy.<\/p>\n

They are trying to call a referendum on removing him from office.<\/p>\n

According to the UN, Venezuela deported hundreds of Colombians last year after the border was closed and thousands more fled back to Colombia for fear of being expelled.<\/p>\n

The UN Inter-American Commission on Human Rights said the situation caused a humanitarian crisis and that deported Colombians’ rights were violated.<\/p>\n

Venezuela denied the allegation.<\/p>\n

\"Santos,<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Decision comes a year after frontier was closed by Venezuela, now facing severe shortages due to an economic crisis.} Venezuela and Colombia have agreed to reopen pedestrian border crossings between their countries, a year after Venezuela closed the frontier in a dispute over security and smuggling. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said on Thursday that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-27663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27663\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27663"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=27663"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=27663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}