The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, arrived in Caracas on Friday morning to hold a key meeting with Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, in an attempt to get the bilateral agenda back on track following the recent reshaping of power in the neighboring country.
The meeting comes after a failed attempt last month in Cucuta, where both delegations were unable to finalize a meeting aimed at relaunching relations between the two countries, and following visits by several Colombian ministers to Caracas.
The visit takes place at a particularly sensitive moment for the region, marked by Nicolas Maduro’s departure from power in January and the reconfiguration of Venezuela’s political landscape. In this new context, Bogotá and Caracas are seeking to redefine their ties in strategic areas, with special emphasis on border security, energy cooperation, and shared economic reactivation.
Colombia’s Petro lands in Caracas to set bilateral agenda with Venezuela
The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, is already in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, where he was received by Foreign Minister Yvan Gil and where he will meet this afternoon with the country’s president, Delcy Rodriguez, after another failed attempt last month.
According to the Colombian presidency, the meeting between the two leaders is taking place “within the framework of the Colombia–Venezuela Presidential Meeting, focused on border security.” In this regard, the meeting will serve as a space where both governments will directly address the main challenges along their shared border, building on progress made in binational mechanisms and prior technical work in security and defense.
The agenda will begin with a private meeting between the leaders to define joint lines of action in response to the phenomena affecting stability along the border. This will be followed by an expanded meeting with official delegations, where institutional commitments between the two countries will be consolidated.
Beyond security, the agenda includes key economic issues. Colombia has expressed interest in advancing energy agreements with Venezuela, including the possible import of gas and the reactivation of binational infrastructure that has been inactive for years.
Energy cooperation is emerging as an opportunity for both countries at a time when Venezuela is seeking to attract foreign investment and revive its oil and gas sector, while Colombia is exploring alternatives to diversify its energy matrix.
Bilateral trade, which has shown signs of recovery in recent years, is also part of the discussions, as is the management of migration flows along the border, where millions of people maintain family and economic ties on both sides.
🇨🇴🇻🇪 El Presidente @PetroGustavo ya está en Caracas, Venezuela, para sostener una reunión bilateral con la presidenta encargada, @delcyrodriguezv.
La seguridad en la frontera es uno de los principales temas en la agenda del encuentro. pic.twitter.com/T0kITlybDO
— Presidencia Colombia 🇨🇴 (@infopresidencia) April 24, 2026
The complex reconfiguration of relations between two neighboring countries
The meeting between Petro and Rodriguez takes place in a political context completely different from that of previous months. Following Maduro’s departure in January, Rodriguez assumed the acting presidency with the backing of Venezuelan institutions—and above all of the United States—amid an ongoing and still uncertain transition process.
Since then, the new government has sought to consolidate its internal position and project itself internationally, promoting economic reforms and diplomatic outreach to various actors, as well as a general amnesty to present an image of a new phase, with an opposition that still largely remains in exile.
Friday’s meeting represents an important step in the reconfiguration of the bilateral relationship. For Colombia, maintaining open channels of dialogue with Caracas is key to regional stability, especially on sensitive issues such as the complex security situation along the extensive border it shares with Venezuela, and in potential energy cooperation, given that Petro is seeking to purchase Venezuelan gas to mitigate the sector’s imminent energy crisis.
Relations between Colombia and Venezuela have gone through a decade marked by ruptures, political shifts, and pragmatic efforts at rebuilding. In 2015, the government of Nicolas Maduro ordered the closure of the border following a security incident, triggering mass deportations and a humanitarian crisis in the border region. That closure, which continued intermittently for years, hit trade and deepened informality along a border of more than 2,000 kilometers.
The point of greatest rupture came in 2019, when the Colombian government of Ivan Duque (2018–2022) recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as interim president and backed the attempt to bring humanitarian aid in from Colombian territory. Caracas interpreted that episode as a direct threat and completely severed diplomatic relations.
The scenario shifted with the arrival of Gustavo Petro in 2022. His government restored diplomatic ties, gradually reopened the border in 2023, and promoted an agenda based on economic cooperation, security, and migration management. Petro held several meetings with Maduro, betting on a functional rather than ideological relationship.
However, that normalization encountered limits after Venezuela’s presidential elections in July 2024. Colombia avoided recognizing the results without guarantees of transparency, reintroducing tensions into the bilateral relationship.