Leaders of Venezuela and Colombia pledged closer military coordination to combat “mafias” groups along their border, as Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro made the first visit since Nicolás Maduro’s ouster.
Petro met with Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez, who took over after the toppling of her former boss Maduro by U.S. forces in January.
Petro said the joint military effort will be aimed at "freeing border areas from the mafias engaged in a range of illegal businesses, starting with cocaine, illicit gold, human trafficking and rare minerals."
"Both countries have undertaken the task of making...military plans, but also the immediate establishment of mechanisms for sharing information and for developing intelligence," Rodriguez said for her part.
Rodriguez assumed power in Venezuela after a lightning U.S. military raid on Caracas on Jan. 3 captured socialist president Maduro and brought him to New York to face drug trafficking charges.
President Donald Trump's administration backs Rodriguez's interim government, which has opened Venezuela's oil industry to US companies.
Petro fiercely criticized the U.S. operation and has been vilified by Trump, who accuses the leftist leader of not doing enough to combat drug production.
A summit between Petro and Rodriguez had been scheduled for March in the Colombian border town of Cucuta, but was cancelled at the last minute.
The area around Cucuta is home to numerous drug-running, left-wing guerrilla groups, which Colombia has long accused Venezuela of funding and protecting.
