Colombia, Venezuela presidents to meet in Caracas

Colombian President Gustavo Petro and his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro will meet in Caracas on Tuesday to discuss their countries’ recently-thawed bilateral ties and expanded trade, the Colombian government said on Monday.
The neighbors’ fraught relationship has improved since Petro took office in August on promises to fully restart trade, with cargo transport now allowed at border crossings between the Colombian city of Cucuta and the Venezuelan state of Tachira.
“President Gustavo Petro will travel to the city of Caracas with his team to have lunch with the Venezuelan president,” Petro’s office said in a statement about the meeting – the leaders’ first since the thaw in relations.
They will discuss bilateral relations, reopening the border and reintegrating Venezuela into the inter-American human rights systems, said the statement.
The meeting is part of efforts to boost regional economies and protect the Amazon, the statement added.