Presidents of Colombia and Venezuela reach border deal Monday Sep 21,2015

 

A meeting over Venezuela-Colombia border tension has ended with an agreement by the countries' presidents to gradually normalise relations.

Monday Sep 21,2015's meeting in Ecuador came a month after the border was closed and trade and movement were paralysed.

After four hours of negotiations, Ecuador's President Rafael Correa read out a joint statement with seven points agreed on, starting with the immediate reinstatement of ambassadors.

The agreement also included a joint investigation of the situation at the border and the gradual opening of border crossings

Monday's meeting was brokered by Ecuador's President Rafael Correa, a close ally of Venezuela, and Uruguay's President Tabare Vazquez, the current rotating head of the 12-member Union of South American Nations. 

Note

The diplomatic crisis began when President Nicolas Maduro deported about 1,500 Colombian migrants he blamed for the smuggling that has helped empty Venezuelan supermarket shelves

Another 16,000 Colombians, some of whom have lived in Venezuela for years, fled voluntarily, fearing reprisals from Venezuelan troops who were seen bulldozing homes and forcing residents to flee across a river separating the two countries.

Although the deportation and mass exodus of Colombians have ceased, Maduro and his Colombian counterpart, Juan Manuel Santos, have only sharpened their attacks, with communities on both sides of the border suffering from the closure of all land crossings