The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petroannounced this Saturday that his country and Venezuela will request their accession to the Mercosur as full members, one day after the meeting they held in Caracas ministers of the two countries, which he described as “supremely successful.”
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“We will ask that the moratorium be lifted so that Venezuela can enter Mercosur as a full member and we as Colombia will make a request to enter Mercosur as a full member”Petro said in a message on his X account.
Mercosur, formed by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguayaccepted Venezuela as a full member in 2012 but in 2017 the bloc invoked the “democratic clause”, that is, the Ushuaia Protocol, to suspend it due to the repression of popular protests against the Government of Nicolas Maduro.
In the case of Colombia, it was accepted as an associated State in 2004 but is not a full member.
On January 17, during the signing of the free trade pact between the European Union (EU) and Mercosur, held in Asunción, some of the countries voted for the return of democracy to Venezuela after the capture of Maduro, a situation that could facilitate its return to the bloc as a full member.
In his message today, Petro also highlighted that energy integration with Venezuela is advancing and added that they hope for the lifting of the sanctions imposed by the United States through the list of Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)“to achieve it.”
“Agreement is reached for a specific meeting of the binational zone” between Colombia and Venezuela, Petro added, pointing out another achievement of yesterday’s meeting in Caracas.
Petro also stressed that “Comprehensive military coordination is undertaken to destroy drug trafficking on the border”something that he had already commented last night when he pointed out that the two countries are going “to a fully coordinated activity to evict the armed drug groups from the border between Colombia and Venezuela.”
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At yesterday’s meeting in Caracas, the governments of Colombia and Venezuela agreed to hold a meeting of the Binational Good Neighbor Commission on April 23 and 24, while it is expected that Petro and the president in charge of the Caribbean nation, Delcy Rodriguezconfirm a new date for their meeting, after the one they had planned for Friday was cancelled.
“On April 23 and 24 in the city of Maracaibo (state of Zulia) the meeting of the Binational Good Neighbor Commission will take place, foreign ministers, we want the deployment of this binational agenda for unity and integration”said Rodríguez in the meeting with the delegation of Colombian ministers.
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