Cargo traffic movement resumes between Colombia, Venezuela

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Trucks loaded with aluminum and medications crossed a bridge linking Colombia and Venezuela for the first time in seven years Monday following restoration of diplomatic relations, giving regional businesses hope for growing trade.

Colombia's new leftist President Gustavo Petro, who took office in August and quickly moved to reestablish ties with Venezuela’s government, was on hand as the trucks rolled across the Simon Bolivar International Bridge between Cucuta, Colombia, and San Antonio, Venezuela. It was once one of the busiest crossings between the two South American nations.

Residents of border areas and business owners in both countries expect the resumption of cargo traffic to generate jobs and reduce the thriving illegal commerce.

“Hopefully, we can reactivate the 1,200 direct jobs that were lost,” said Sandra Guzmán Lizarazo, president of the Colombian Federation of Logistics Agents in International Trade, which had to close all but one of its 15 customs warehouses in the Colombian border city of Cúcuta when commercial traffic was blocked.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in 2015 ordered border crossings closed during what he described as a crackdown on smuggling. Foot traffic eventually resumed, and some very limited cargo continued to move through the northernmost bridge.

Relations were already strained between Maduro's socialist government and U.S.-allied Colombia. They were strained further after Maduro's 2018 reelection, which Colombia, the U.S. and many other nations considered illegitimate. Diplomatic relations were severed the following year.

Trade between the two countries reached $2.4 billion in 2014 but fell to about $406 million last year — most of it Venezuelan imports from Colombia — according to the Chamber of...