BOGOTA – Colombia’s foreign and defense ministers headed to Caracas on Friday following the abrupt postponement of a high-level meeting between President Gustavo Petro and Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodriguez, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
The planned summit marked Rodriguez’s debut as a presidential counterpart since the U.S. ousted her predecessor, Nicolas Maduro, in a January raid. Petro, whose term ends in August, had spearheaded the reopening of bilateral trade early in his presidency, and the ministers are expected to focus on expanding commerce and energy ties, including a fresh agreement to revive a damaged section of the binational Antonio Ricaurte gas pipeline.
That 225-kilometer (140-mile) line, dormant for years, boasts a capacity of 500 million cubic feet of gas per day. Venezuela’s state oil firm PDVSA will handle repairs, enabling Colombia to import natural gas from its neighbor, Colombia’s energy ministry announced Thursday.
The original meeting was slated near the Tienditas border bridge linking Colombia’s Villa del Rosario and Venezuela, but both nations cited “force majeure” unforeseen circumstances, in a joint statement late Thursday, vowing to reschedule soon without elaborating.
Colombia notched a $973.4 million trade surplus with Venezuela in 2025, exporting $1.07 billion in food, tobacco, chemicals, plastics, and machinery while importing $98.3 million in iron, steel, fertilizer, and paper, per statistics agency DANE. The nations share deep bonds, hosting nearly 3 million Venezuelan migrants in Colombia amid their homeland’s economic woes.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has backed Rodriguez’s investor outreach in oil and mining since Maduro’s capture, praising her U.S. cooperation despite quietly pursuing legal leverage against her, Reuters has reported. Diplomatic ties between Washington and Caracas have been restored, with Rodriguez hosting U.S. energy and interior secretaries.
Petro enjoyed rapport with Maduro but has clashed with Trump, who accused him without proof of leading “illegal drug” efforts. Petro touts record seizures under his watch and condemns lethal strikes on suspected drug vessels as war crimes. The pair struck a positive note after a Washington meeting last month and a Thursday call on border economics, per Petro’s office. Trump has pressed Colombia for tougher anti-drug collaboration as the ministers’ trip underscores fragile regional dynamics.