CARACAS: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Friday that he is ready to meet Colombian counterpart Juan Manuel Santos, “where he wants, when he wants and how he wants” to seek a solution to an escalating border crisis.
“President Santos, let us make history you and I, if you wish,” Maduro told thousands of supporters at the end of a march in support of his decision to close the border at several points after suspected smugglers shot and wounded three Venezuelan soldiers and a civilian.
“I say to President Santos, let us adjust our schedules,” Maduro said. “The time has come for us to meet face-to-face and resolve this matter.”
The incident that prompted Caracas to seal the border on Aug. 19 occurred near the crossing between the Venezuelan municipality of San Antonio and the much larger Colombian city of Cucuta, which have long formed a single metropolitan area.
Since the closure, more than 1,000 Colombians have been deported and nearly 4,300 others have left Venezuela voluntarily.
Maduro subsequently expanded the closure to six other towns in Tachira state.
Contraband has long been an issue on the 2,219-kilometer (1,378-mile) border, as the Venezuelan government uses subsidies and price controls to hold down the cost of fuel and staple foods, making it possible for Colombian smugglers to profit by reselling cheap goods from Venezuela.
The leftist government in Caracas also complains that right-wing Colombian paramilitaries operate freely in the border region.
Colombia’s foreign minister, Maria Angela Holguin, said Thursday during a visit to Cucuta that Santos telephoned Maduro last weekend to discuss the border crisis and was still awaiting a response.
Santos was in the Cucuta area on Wednesday to meet with the Colombians deported from Venezuela and he told them that he shared their indignation.
He demanded that Venezuelan authorities show “respect for the dignity of Colombians” and insisted the deportees were not paramilitaries.
Maduro reiterated on Friday his earlier criticism of Santos’ comments in Cucuta, which, according to the Venezuelan leader, “destroyed” the accords reached earlier by the countries’ respective foreign ministers.
The head of the Union of South American Nations, former Colombian President Ernesto Samper, called for the “immediate suspension of deportations” and for dialogue between Bogota and Caracas.
The Organization of American States is due to consider on Monday a Colombian request for a special meeting of foreign ministers on the border crisis.
Colombia recalled its ambassador to Venezuela for consultations. Caracas followed suit a few hours later.
