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SAN JUAN DE COLON, Venezuela — Alfredo Rosales and his brother-owned freight company are busy, with some 50 trucks transporting about 1 million tons of coal, cement, flour and other goods a year in commerce between Venezuela and Colombia.
In 2015, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's socialist government closed border crossings with neighboring countries after years of deteriorating relations with the conservative Colombian government, and their work suddenly stopped.
Rosales said Thursday in a quiet five-acre truck warehouse overlooking his home in the San Juan de Colon neighborhood in western Venezuela, "When they close the border, we have nowhere to work... This seriously hurt us," the garage is located on a plateau with a view of the lush mountains. They only have a few trucks now, the rest are sold out, some are scrapped.
However, optimism began to spread to the border areas, and now the left-wing Gustavo Oil Company is taking office as Colombia's president on Sunday, pledging to normalize relations with Maduro. Colombia's incoming foreign ministers and Venezuelan counterparts announced in late July that their borders would gradually reopen when diplomatic relations were resumed.
Rosales said: "That's all that's left, hopefully getting to work." ”
Despite these hopes, business owners and residents of the region know that meaningful vehicle activity across borders will not resume overnight. Venezuela's economic woes have only worsened since the closure of border commerce, with more than 6 million people leaving, mainly in Latin America and the Caribbean in search of a better life, and about 1.8 million people migrating to Colombia.
The border between Colombia and Venezuela is about 1,370 miles (2,700 kilometers). Bandits, drug traffickers, paramilitary groups and guerrilla groups have taken advantage of remoteness and desolation to operate, although this has not deterred trade before closing.
With the blessing of officials on both sides of the border, the goods continued to enter Venezuela illegally through dirt roads guarded by armed groups and others. Similarly, illegal imports have entered Colombia, but on a smaller scale.
On Saturday, men crammed soft drinks, bananas, cooking oil, specialty paper, scrap metal and other goods on an illegal road, and cars, bicycles, motorcycles and their backs turned into muddy chaos in the rain.
However, sanctioned trade will flow at a higher rate.
Although the border is long, all but two official crossings are concentrated on a 45-mile (75-kilometer) stretch of road that handles 60 percent of commercial activity between neighboring countries before closing. The country's northernmost bridge is about 330 miles away, and Venezuela continues to allow some cargo to pass through there.
Luis Russián, president of the Venezuelan-Colombian Chamber of Commerce for Economic Integration, said: "People's expectations are very positive and we have waited so long for this situation. "The chamber predicts that the agriculture, pharmaceutical and hygiene sectors will be among the first to benefit from the reopening." We believe that this is a new chapter that will be written between Venezuela and Colombia. ”
Russián said some Colombian companies have expressed interest in joining the Chamber of Commerce when considering whether to try to enter the Venezuelan market. The group had about 180 members at the end of the 21st century, but now it has about half.
Food, cleaning products, auto parts, chemicals and countless other commodities are used to cross between the two countries. Even in the early days of Venezuela's socialist government, commerce remained strong, when the country's petrodollar allowed businesses to import a variety of things. Those relationships strained when Venezuela's economic downturn prevented businesses from paying and accessing lines of credit.
According to the Venezuela-based Chamber of Commerce, commercial exchanges that reached $2.4 billion in 2014 fell to about $406 million last year, of which $331 million was imported from Colombia. The group estimates that if the border continues to close, the event could reach $800 million this year, but if the crossing is reopened to vehicles, the activity could be as high as $1.2 billion.
The Venezuelan government estimates that commercial exchanges could exceed $4 billion within a year of fully reopening the border.
Jesús Faría, chairman of the Permanent Committee for Economic, Financial and Social Development of the Venezuelan National Assembly, said: "This will create jobs, it will create wealth, it will create the possibility of production, business exchanges." ”
Unlike outgoing President Ivan Duke, Petro has expressed a willingness to improve relations with Venezuela. After Maduro's re-election in 2018, Duke and dozens of other countries no longer recognize him as Venezuela's legitimate leader. Duke has backed economic sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union on Venezuela and has repeatedly accused Maduro of protecting some Colombian rebels.
However, more ties must be repaired before trailers, tankers and other large vehicles can resume moving between the two countries.
On the Venezuelan side, the road to the border has fallen into disrepair and the bridge has not been maintained. When pedestrians are pushing particularly heavy goods on a cart, one span can even shake. A bridge that had not been opened before closing remained blocked by more than a dozen sea containers and cement barricades.
Venezuelan truck drivers lacked permits and stopped paying fees when the business was reduced. Colombian counterparts want security. Venezuelan business owners wanted to be able to arrange financing in some way, as banks stopped lending due to inflation and other economic problems that the country did not control.
It's not just big companies that have the hope of resuming trade. Self-employed and small business owners want to resume cross-border regular vehicle traffic.
Among them is Janet Delgado, who sells clothes she buys in Colombia in Venezuela and who walks about twice a week.
When she only went to buy a few clothes, she used a collapsible grocery cart. But like many other merchants, if she needed to bring a whole bunch of goods, she would cross the border via an illegal road where the price of moving between countries was lower than the bribe she had to pay to bring her clothes home at an official crossroads.
"If they stop charging us, that would be very helpful," she said of the bribe. "I brought two bags and they thought one was a millionaire. (Vehicle traffic) was great for me and others. I brought some things with me, but others brought much more. ”