BUCARAMANGA, Colombia -- Colombia and Venezuela on Sunday opened a key bridge linking the countries that had been closed for almost seven years amid political tensions, launching a new era of improved relations under Colombia’s new leftist president.
Delegations led by Colombian trade minister Germán Umaña and the governor of Venezuela's Tachira state, Freddy Bernal, met in the middle of the “Tienditas” bridge for an opening ceremony with balloons the colors of each country's flag.
Construction of the bridge linking Tachira and Colombia’s Norte de Santander state ended in 2016, but it was never inaugurated because of the politic crisis between the South American countries. The bridge, which cost more than $32 million to build, was designed to ease congestion on the two other binational bridges in the area and facilitate trade.
In 2019, Venezuela’s socialist President Nicolás Maduro ordered more than a dozen cargo containers placed on the bridge to symbolically block it to protest attempts by the opposition to bring humanitarian aid into Venezuela from Colombia.
“In political terms, ‘Tienditas’ is the symbol of the recovery of dialogue between the two countries,” said Ronal Rodríguez, a researcher at the Venezuela Observatory in Colombia’s Universidad del Rosario.
Following the inauguration as president in Colombia of Gustavo Petro - a former guerrilla - diplomatic and commercial relations with Venezuela were reestablished in September. ”Tienditas” was the last remaining bridge linking the countries to be reopened along the countries’ 2200-kilometer (1,367-mile) border.
Petro’s predecessor, Iván Duque (2018-2022), had called Maduro a “dictator” and made Colombia one of 50 countries that recognized opposition leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s interim president, charging that Maduro’s re-election had been fraudulent.
Pedro Benítez, a political analyst and professor at the Central University of Venezuela, told The Associated Press the key symbol of the restoration of relations was the first face-to-face meeting between Petro and Maduro in November.
Benitez said the reestablishment of trade relations between the neighbors so far has been “very bumpy” because incoming Colombian products have been very expensive due to “non-institutional obstacles attributed to Venezuelan officials.”
The resumption of commercial ties began with the enabling of traffic across the Simón Bolívar and Francisco de Paula Santander bridges in September. From then until November, 385 trucks passed over the bridges, most from Colombia into Venezuela carrying products such as medical supplies, fiber optics, textiles, toilet paper and cardboard. Coiled steel, motors and pipes were transported from Venezuela into Colombia.