Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said Thursday that he will meet his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro over the border crisis between the South American countries -- but only with certain conditions.
The row flared on August 19 when Maduro closed the border with Colombia after blaming Colombia-based right-wing paramilitaries for the wounding of three Venezuelan anti-smuggling patrolmen.
Maduro has also blamed smuggling by Colombians living in Venezuela for shortages of basic goods in his country.
"I want to tell president Maduro that I'm ready to meet with him, but that Colombians need their fundamental rights respected," Santos said in a televised speech.
Santos's conditions for that meeting include creating a "humanitarian corridor" so that the more than 2,000 Colombian children that live in border towns on the Venezuelan side "can go to school in Colombia."
Santos also asked Venezuela to let 15 trucks enter the country, bypassing the border closure imposed by Caracas, so the more than 1,300 Colombians deported since the crisis began can recover their belongings.
Santos called on Venezuela to "not mistreat the Colombians that are going to be deported from Venezuela."
If these "minimum conditions are met, I will sit down and fix this problem," said Santos.
"I assure you, president Maduro, that we can fix this," he added.
Venezuela has long used its oil wealth to subsidize basic goods like rice and toilet paper, which are sold at about a tenth of the price they command in Colombia.
But Maduro has said that Colombians, more than five million of whom live in Venezuela, are smuggling those heavily subsidized goods over the border.
He blames the rampant smuggling for shortages in Venezuela, which are being exacerbated by tumbling oil prices.
The two countries recalled their respective ambassadors as tensions rose.
The porous, 2,200-kilometer (1,400-mile) border has long been rife with guerrillas from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and National Liberation Army (ELN), as well as drug gangs and smugglers.
Colombian gangs include the remnants of right-wing paramilitary groups that once fought the guerrillas but were disbanded a decade ago.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said Thursday that he will meet his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro over the border crisis between the South American countries — but only with certain conditions.
The row flared on August 19 when Maduro closed the border with Colombia after blaming Colombia-based right-wing paramilitaries for the wounding of three Venezuelan anti-smuggling patrolmen.
Maduro has also blamed smuggling by Colombians living in Venezuela for shortages of basic goods in his country.
“I want to tell president Maduro that I’m ready to meet with him, but that Colombians need their fundamental rights respected,” Santos said in a televised speech.
Santos’s conditions for that meeting include creating a “humanitarian corridor” so that the more than 2,000 Colombian children that live in border towns on the Venezuelan side “can go to school in Colombia.”
Santos also asked Venezuela to let 15 trucks enter the country, bypassing the border closure imposed by Caracas, so the more than 1,300 Colombians deported since the crisis began can recover their belongings.
Santos called on Venezuela to “not mistreat the Colombians that are going to be deported from Venezuela.”
If these “minimum conditions are met, I will sit down and fix this problem,” said Santos.
“I assure you, president Maduro, that we can fix this,” he added.
Venezuela has long used its oil wealth to subsidize basic goods like rice and toilet paper, which are sold at about a tenth of the price they command in Colombia.
But Maduro has said that Colombians, more than five million of whom live in Venezuela, are smuggling those heavily subsidized goods over the border.
He blames the rampant smuggling for shortages in Venezuela, which are being exacerbated by tumbling oil prices.
The two countries recalled their respective ambassadors as tensions rose.
The porous, 2,200-kilometer (1,400-mile) border has long been rife with guerrillas from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and National Liberation Army (ELN), as well as drug gangs and smugglers.
Colombian gangs include the remnants of right-wing paramilitary groups that once fought the guerrillas but were disbanded a decade ago.
