Gustavo Petro, the first head of state to meet Delcy Rodríguez in post-Maduro Venezuela

Colombian President Gustavo Petro and Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, are preparing for a second attempt at holding a bilateral meeting. Petro announced that the two leaders are scheduled to meet in Caracas at midday on Friday — the first official visit by a head of state to Venezuela since Nicolás Maduro’s removal, and another step in Rodríguez’s consolidation of power.

High‑level delegations from both countries met on Thursday morning, and Miraflores, the Venezuelan seat of government, confirmed the meeting between Petro and Rodríguez that evening. Until then, doubts lingered: a previous meeting planned for March in Cúcuta was abruptly canceled by Caracas at the last minute, citing “force majeure,” while the press waited at the border.

Colombia has expressed interest in entering Venezuela’s electricity sector — a key component of the oil‑sector revival the United States is seeking to support — and has also pushed for reopening the Antonio Ricaurte binational gas pipeline. These moves come amid Colombia’s rapidly declining natural‑gas production. Although economic ties between the two countries, severed by Petro’s predecessor and restored in 2022, remain far weaker than they were in the late 20th century, both governments see incentives in reviving them to boost their struggling economies.

Despite this, Petro said Friday’s meeting will focus on security. The two countries share more than 1,240 miles of border, and there is particular concern regarding the mountainous, jungle region of Catatumbo — an area with some of Colombia’s largest coca crops and the site of an armed conflict between the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas and dissident factions of the now-defunct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which has displaced tens of thousands of people.

“The issue is security and a joint plan,” Petro said, outlining the pillar he intends to build on: strengthening binational intelligence. “Without intelligence, bombs fall where they shouldn’t; if shots are fired without intelligence, they end up killing people, as has already happened in Colombia.”

On the Venezuelan side, Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello launched the Catatumbo Lightning Operation in late 2024, targeting drug‑trafficking groups. Police and military raids led to the arrests of opposition mayors, judges, and prosecutors allegedly tied to illegal activities. Cabello claimed — without presenting evidence — that these criminal networks were linked to the “Colombian‑Venezuelan right,” accusing former Colombian presidents Iván Duque and Álvaro Uribe, along with Venezuelan opposition figure María Corina Machado, of “financing of electoral campaigns with drug trafficking proceeds.”

Despite the failed meeting in Cúcuta, bilateral relations — broken during the most turbulent years of Maduro’s rule — did not deteriorate. The next day, several senior members of Petro’s government traveled to Venezuela, including the foreign minister and the ministers of defense, commerce, and mining and energy. From that visit came the announcement that the binational commission would meet on Thursday and Friday, initially in Maracaibo before the venue was shifted to Caracas, as Petro recounted last week during a trip to Spain. “If the mountain won’t come to Muhammad, then Muhammad must go to the mountain. And so I’m going to Caracas,” he told EL PAÍS.

In that same visit, during an interview with Spain’s public broadcaster RTVE and the EFE news agency, Petro outlined what he sees as a path to unlock Venezuela’s political future: a power‑sharing arrangement between Chavismo and the opposition for “one or two years,” which he argued could pave the way for “truly free elections.” “They have to co-govern for a while to build trust,” he said.

Miraflores did not embrace the idea, responding with silence. Petro distanced himself from Maduro’s government after the July 2024 elections, when opposition candidate Edmundo López declared victory and released tally sheets supporting his claim. Maduro rejected the result but never produced comparable documentation, such as the proof requested by Petro, among other leaders.

In the same conversation in Barcelona, ​​Petro also floated another position that unsettled opposition leader María Corina Machado, who was also traveling through Spain at the time. He said there is “deep fear” among Venezuelans about the possibility of a “political vendetta” if the Nobel Peace Prize laureate returns to Venezuela.

The Colombian delegation began arriving in Venezuela earlier this week. Eighty‑three members of Petro’s government traveled for technical‑level meetings with nearly 100 Venezuelan officials. Priority topics included border, migration, and consular issues; education and culture; energy and risk‑management cooperation; food security; and trade, industry, and tourism.

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