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CIAO DATE: 04/03
Colombia-Venezuela Alert: Chávez and Pastrana Meet to Improve Relations
Lowell R. Fleischer *
Hemisphere Focus: 1998-2000
Series VIII, Issue 11
June 15, 2000
Overview
Colombia and Venezuela took steps last month to improve their bilateral relationship, which, although never easy, had become increasingly tense since Hugo Chávez took office as president of Venezuela in February last year. The two countries have had a complicated and competitive relationship ever since the partition of Gran Colombia in 1830.
President Chávez and Colombian president Andres Pastrana agreed to the reactivation of a formal commission to address a series of border problems that have plagued relations between the two countries for years. The two Andean leaders met for five hours on May 4 in Santa Marta, Colombia, at the Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino. Simon Bolivar died there in 1830. They last met in mid-February on the Venezuelan side of the border. This latest meeting was preceded by sessions between the foreign ministers of the two countries, some including the ministers of defense and interior.
Border Commission to Meet in June
According to Venezuelan foreign minister José Vicente Rangel, the reconstituted commission, which had not met for several years, will be charged with the "drawing of marine and submarine limits," as well as matters concerning watersheds, international waterways, boundary monuments, integration, and population density along the borders of the two countries. The border commission will hold its first meeting this month and is scheduled to convene at least four times during the next 12 months.
"The agreement demonstrates a decision by both countries to work out their differences without the intervention of third parties," said Colombian foreign minister Guillermo Fernández de Soto at a press conference. "At the level of presidents and foreign ministers there is an excellent environment, but this is very difficult because the issue is very sensitive for public opinion," stated Pedro Gómez Barrero, a former Colombian ambassador in Caracas and head of the Colombian negotiators. Venezuelan vice president Isaías Rodríguez leads the Venezuelan team. In their remarks after the meeting, both presidents signaled that the dynamic of relations between the two countries no longer depends on the maritime boundary issue.
For more than 40 years, the two countries have been negotiating the boundary between them in the Gulf of Venezuela, known as the Gulf of Guajira in Colombia, that might harbor petroleum deposits. The roots of the maritime boundary issue date back to colonial times. The borders of the nations that emerged from the wars for independence were not clearly defined.
During the presidency of Carlos Lleras Restrepo in the late 1960s, Colombia attempted to negotiate contracts with foreign oil companies to do offshore exploratory drilling on the continental shelf of the gulf. Caracas protested that the gulf was an inland waterway whose waters were "traditionally and historically Venezuelan." Several shooting incidents in the period between 1981 and 1986 led both countries to mobilize troops along the border and engage in a minor arms race.
When President Pastrana first ran for president in 1994, he suggested that there should be joint patrols in the disputed waters during presidential campaigns to keep the volatile issue out of politics.
Chávez Offers Help with FARC Negotiations
Although Chávez' penchant for speaking off the cuff about the insurgency in Colombia has visibly annoyed Colombian officials, in the official communiqué issued after the two presidents met, Colombia thanked Venezuela for its help in negotiating an initial agreement with the National Liberation Army (ELN). "I want to thank Chávez for his commitment to peace. He has reiterated that he is willing to do what he can do to contributeÖ," Pastrana said. Chávez has complained about Colombia's failure to secure the border area where the principal oil fields of both countries are located. He has also made repeated sympathetic gestures to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas.
Colombia's guerrilla groups, drug traffickers, and paramilitaries regularly use Venezuelan border areas for safe haven and resupply. Last year, Human Rights Watch sent letters to both presidents urging them to ensure that future Colombian refugees be allowed to remain in Venezuela until their claims are thoroughly reviewed. The letters were prompted by reports that more than 600 refugees were repatriated to Colombia, ignoring their wishes to file asylum claims.
There are an estimated 1 million undocumented Colombians in Venezuela. For the most part, these Colombians work as domestics and fill other menial positions shunned by Venezuelans. This wave of immigration has contributed to the large volume of contraband trade that has flourished in the border regions for years. Drug trafficking and cross-border guerrilla attacks have intensified the border problems.
Bilateral Trade Approaches $3 Billion
During the presidential summit, representatives of the Colombian private sector expressed their preoccupation with problems related to the transshipment of merchandise in the border area. Despite the difficulties, Chávez said trade between the two countries has grown by 30 percent in recent months. According to Venezuelan press reports, Venezuelan-Colombian overland trade has fallen 56 percent since the Venezuelan government implemented restrictions on Colombian trucks entering the country. Juan Gonzàlez Velasco, who heads the Venezuelan-Colombian Trade Chamber, attributed the decline to border restrictions and not to recessions in both countries last year, as the Venezuelan government claims. According to González, restrictions that went into effect last June are further evidence of Venezuela's protectionist policies.
Overall, bilateral trade fell 28 percent last year, mostly due to the recessions in both countries. Through March 31 of this year, Colombian exports to Venezuela rose by about 20 percent while Venezuelan sales to Colombia rose by 6 percent, according to the deputy Venezuelan trade minister. Since the signing of a free trade agreement in 1991, trade has increased from $250 million to $1.8 billion in 1993 and $2.6 billion in 1998.
The two countries, the largest members of the Andean Community (formerly called the Andean Pact), account for two-thirds of the combined Andean GDP and three-quarters of its total trade. After enjoying considerable success during its early years, which coincided with an emphasis on import substitution policies, the group stagnated. Both Colombia and Venezuela signed bilateral trade agreements with individual countries in Latin America in the early 1990s. This was strongly resented by other members and made a coordinated Andean economic policy more difficult to attain. Despite political tensions between some of the countries, in recent years the renamed and reorganized Andean Community has made progress in fostering increased trade and greater economic integration. The Andean presidents are scheduled to hold a summit meeting in early June in Lima, Peru.
Trade and Investment Ties Intensify
Venezuelans generally have tended to view Colombia as a violent and unstable country whose problems and people have always washed over the border into the more peaceful and prosperous Venezuela. Venezuelans have also resented what they consider the superior attitude of the Colombians. Despite these perceptions, and the failure so far to agree on the boundary issue, trade and investment ties have prospered in the 1990s despite even Colombia's many internal problems.
Both countries face a long list of internal political and economic difficulties that are likely to take precedence over improving their relations further. Nevertheless, through these increased trade and investment ties, the two countries are likely to grow increasingly interdependent, and, as they do, border disputes and military rivalry could well diminish and relations become more congenial.
Lowell R. Fleischer is a senior associate in the Americas Program at CSIS. He is also contributing editor of the Latin American Law and Business Report and the North American Investment Report. He is a retired foreign service officer, who served in Venezuela, and a former deputy director of the Washington Office of the Council of the Americas. He has taught at the University of Connecticut and the University of Massachusetts and has been a consultant to the World Bank and the U.S. Institute of Peace. Dr. Fleischer is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and holds M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Connecticut. Back.
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