Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced from Haiti that he has held talks with his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolás Maduro, to implement a joint plan that seeks to eradicate armed gangs on the border between the two countries.
In this context, Petro explained that after his conversation with Maduro, it was agreed “to close illegal crossings, especially on the Catatumbo River.» In addition, he indicated that he instructed the Colombian Minister of Defense to establish contact with his counterpart in Venezuela to carry out this strategy.
The Colombian president stressed that this collaboration with Venezuela aims to eliminate any space for drug traffickers to act on the border. According to Petro, this situation is a legacy of the Colombian-Venezuelan borders, affected by “truly disconnected people who destroyed peace and the connection between peoples, leaving the territory in the hands of armed mafias.”
On the other hand, he emphasized that his visit to Haiti seeks to establish agreements to strengthen peace and Haitian society. He announced that Colombia will be in charge of training Haitian police forces and that the drug trafficking route that uses Haitian territory, coming from the Colombian-Venezuelan border, will be blocked.
“Disconnected from history are those who ignore that black Haitian women were the pioneers in creating the first tricolor flags of our country and that the blue and red stripe is the same flag of Haiti,” said Petro.
