BOGOTA/CARACAS, April 24 (Reuters) – Colombian President Gustavo Petro is set to travel to Caracas on Friday to meet his Venezuelan counterpart Delcy Rodriguez, where the two leaders, who have both come under intense pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump, are expected to focus on security issues.
The meeting will be Rodriguez’s second with a fellow head of state, after she traveled briefly to Grenada earlier this month to meet her counterpart there. It follows a visit to Caracas by the Colombian ministers of foreign relations and defense last month, in which discussions focused on security, trade and energy cooperation.
Colombia and Venezuela have deep historical and cultural ties, especially along their shared 2,200-kilometer (1,370-mile) border, where many families are bi-national. Nearly 3 million Venezuelan migrants have settled in Colombia in recent years, fleeing economic collapse in their home country.
Though the border region is a hub for an estimated $1 billion in annual trade, it is also home to drug trafficking, smuggling and other illegal activity carried out by armed groups including criminal gangs and Colombian guerrilla organizations.
Human rights groups and previous Colombian governments have alleged the armed groups work with the support or complicity of the Venezuelan military, an accusation Caracas has long denied.
Petro and Rodriguez’s predecessor, Nicolas Maduro, who was removed in a U.S. operation in January, have previously increased the number of troops stationed at the border to combat drug trafficking.
Rodriguez, formerly vice president, has been seeking to attract investors in oil and mining under the close supervision of the Trump administration. Trump himself has repeatedly praised her, and she has welcomed U.S. officials and potential investors to Caracas.
She has vociferously urged the U.S. to lift sanctions on her country, saying special licenses and waivers are not enough for investors to feel secure or for the economy to recover.
Petro has had numerous squabbles with Trump, who has repeatedly demanded more cooperation from Colombia in the fight against drug trafficking, while Petro says there have been record drug seizures during his tenure.
Despite personal sanctions imposed on Petro by Washington, the two men were each positive after a face-to-face meeting earlier this year. In March they had a friendly call to discuss the economy along the Venezuelan-Colombian border, Petro’s office said at the time.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Nia Williams)
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