Venezuela, Colombia seal agreement to combat crime at the border

Colombian President Gustavo Petro and his Venezuelan counterpart Delcy Rodriguez agreed intelligence-sharing measures to combat crime on their shared border at a meeting on Friday (April 24), as well as increases in trade and bilateral efforts to ensure electricity provision to western Venezuela, which suffers frequent black-outs.

Both leaders have come under intense pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump, in Rodriguez's case to open her country's economy to foreign investment and in Petro's to do more to combat drug trafficking.

The meeting at the presidential palace in Caracas was Rodriguez's second with a fellow head of state, after she traveled briefly to Grenada earlier this month.

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 more than $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.

-Reuters