International

Maduro says Venezuela-Colombia border to completely reopen Jan. 1

Photo: AFP

| By AFP |

Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro said Monday his country would fully reopen its land border with Colombia on January 1, completing a negotiating process that began in September with the two South American neighbors reestablishing diplomatic ties.

“I can announce that we will be completely opening the entire western border of Venezuela with Colombia for the passage of vehicles,” the socialist president said in a statement broadcast on the state media.

“We are preparing everything to comply with what we announced, to fulfill the pledges made with (Colombian) President Gustavo Petro to open it on January 1,” Maduro said.

The border was partially closed seven years ago and completely blocked three years ago, when Maduro broke off diplomatic ties after the previous Colombian government questioned his re-election, the legitimacy of which many countries, including the United States, have also doubted.

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As soon as he came to power, Petro, Colombia’s first-ever left-wing president, sought to reestablish ties and pushed for a reopening of the border.

The Simon Bolivar Bridge, which connects Colombia’s Cucuta with the Venezuelan city of San Antonio del Tachira, is currently open for cargo vehicles between 10:00 am and 5:00 pm and for pedestrians between 5:00 am and 6:00 pm.

It is expected that next Thursday a test plan will be launched on the “Tienditas” bridge, a land route that has not been inaugurated since its construction in 2017.

Related Topics:Colombia Maduro Venezuela

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Trump urges Putin to reach peace deal

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“I want to see him reach an agreement to prevent Russian, Ukrainian, and other people from dying,” Trump stated during a press conference in the Oval Office at the White House.

“I think he will. I don’t want to have to impose secondary tariffs on Russian oil,” the Republican leader added, recalling that he had already taken similar measures against Venezuela by sanctioning buyers of the South American country’s crude oil.

Trump also reiterated his frustration over Ukraine’s resistance to an agreement that would allow the United States to exploit natural resources in the country—a condition he set in negotiations to end the war.

International

Deportation flight lands in Venezuela; government denies criminal gang links

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Unlike previous flights operated by the Venezuelan state airline Conviasa, this time, an aircraft from the U.S. airline Eastern landed at Maiquetía Airport, on the outskirts of Caracas, shortly after 2:00 p.m. with the deportees.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who welcomed the returnees at the airport, stated that the 175 repatriated individuals were coming back “after being subjected, like all Venezuelans, to persecution” and dismissed claims that they belonged to the criminal organization El Tren de Aragua.

However, Cabello confirmed that “for the first time in these flights we have been carrying out, someone of significance wanted by Venezuelan justice has arrived, and he is not from El Tren de Aragua.” Instead, he belongs to a gang operating in the state of Trujillo. The minister did not disclose the individual’s identity or provide details on where he would be taken.

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Son of journalist José Rubén Zamora condemns father’s return to prison as “illegal”

Guatemalan court decides Wednesday whether to convict journalist José Rubén Zamora

The son of renowned journalist José Rubén Zamora Marroquín, José Carlos Zamora, has denounced as “illegal” the court order that sent his father back to a Guatemalan prison on March 3, after already spending 819 days behind barsover a highly irregular money laundering case.

“My father’s return to prison was based on an arbitrary and illegal ruling. It is also alarming that the judge who had granted him house arrest received threats,” José Carlos Zamora told EFE in an interview on Saturday.

The 67-year-old journalist was sent back to prison inside the Mariscal Zavala military barracks on March 3, when Judge Erick García upheld a Court of Appeals ruling that overturned the house arrest granted to him in October. Zamora had already spent 819 days in prison over an alleged money laundering case.

His son condemned the situation as “unacceptable”, stating that the judge handling the case “cannot do his job in accordance with the law due to threats against his life.”