Venezuela-Colombia Leaders Announce Border Anti-Crime Pact

Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodríguez hosted Colombian President Gustavo Petro for talks in Caracas on Friday, marking the first official visit by a foreign head of state since a U.S. military operation captured former President Nicolás Maduro on January 3. The leaders announced joint military plans and immediate intelligence-sharing mechanisms to combat organized crime groups operating along their 2,200-kilometer shared border.

Rodríguez described the commitments as a "very serious and concrete approach to combating criminal groups and transnational crime." Petro echoed the sentiment, stating the countries would pursue "a fully coordinated common effort to free border populations from mafias engaged in various illegal economies," including drug trafficking, human trafficking, illegal gold mining, and rare minerals extraction. The pledges address escalating violence in Colombia's Catatumbo region, bordering Venezuela's Táchira state, where clashes among groups such as the National Liberation Army (ELN), FARC dissidents including the Estado Mayor Central and Segunda Marquetalia, and the Clan del Golfo have displaced thousands in recent weeks.