(Left to right) Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez, Ecuador’s Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino, Colombia’s Foreign Minister Maria Holguin and Uruguay’s Foreign Minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa attend a dialogue session in Quito.
Reuters/Bogota
Colombia has asked for an explanation from Venezuela after detecting two military airplanes that flew into its airspace late on Saturday, the defence ministry said.
The two aircraft entered Colombia’s northern La Guajira province, flew about 2.9kms over the border and then circled above a military unit, Colombia’s government said in a statement yesterday.
Venezuelan officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The incident comes amid a diplomatic row between the conservative administration of Juan Manuel Santos in Colombia and the socialist government of Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro.
Maduro closed several major border crossings and deported 1,300 Colombians last month in what he called a crackdown on smuggling and crime on the frontier.
As many as 16,000 Colombians have left neighbouring Venezuela, according to the United Nations.
Maduro says he is protecting his country from criminals who smuggle everything from gasoline to flour across the border, but his political opponents say he is using Colombians as scapegoats to distract from Venezuela’s economic crisis.
Colombians were made to leave their homes in several Venezuelan border towns and forced in many cases to cross rivers and bridges with their belongings on their backs.
On Saturday the foreign ministers of Colombia and Venezuela had agreed to renew diplomatic contacts that had been interrupted by the ongoing border crisis.
Ambassadors from each country had been recalled in late August after tensions broke out.
However, Colombian Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin and her Venezuelan counterpart, Delcy Rodriguez, failed to agree on a meeting of their respective presidents to fully resolve the crisis, according to a joint statement.
An earlier meeting between Holguin and Rodriguez on August 26 failed to end the war of words between the two countries.
The governments of Ecuador and Uruguay have been pushing officials in Bogota and Caracas to resolve their differences, and got the foreign ministers to meet in Quito.
The ministers made “satisfactory advances” in dealing with the “sensitive issues,” and will consult with their respective leaders about plans for a presidential meeting, said a final joint statement read by Ecuadoran Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino.
