Unilateral Border Closures by Venezuela
Beginning Monday, August 12th, Venezuela enacted a one-month closure of its 1,360 mile border with Colombia every night between 10 pm and 5 am. Though official Venezuelan media states that the Colombian President, Juan Manuel Santos, agreed to the measure to close the border, reports from Reuters suggests that such a decision was a unilateral decision by President Maduro. Colombian Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin stated that the closure “is a unilateral move by the Government of Venezuela. At no time was a consensus agreed upon by the presidents in the Cartagena meeting.” The Colombian government does consider smuggling problematic, as it leads to a large loss of tax revenue in Colombia and raises calls against unfair competition from local businesses. However, Holguin asserted that the the border closure is not an appropriate means to control the flow of contraband. María Gabriela Cardozo, head of the Táchira chamber of commerce, suggests that the only way to stop smugglers along the border would be to build a wall along its entire length. For Cardozo, the only practical long-term solution to smuggling is an end to the Venezuelan subsidy system. Venezuela’s decision to close its border at night stems from an effort to combat the smuggling of goods such as oil and food from Venezuela into Colombia. When the price of oil rose drastically roughly 10 years ago, it sent enormous revenue to oil-rich Venezuela. The Venezuelan government spent its oil gains on subsidies and social programs to create support for the government among the lower class. These subsidies created a massive disparity between the prices of goods in Venezuela and in Colombia. For example, it costs approximately $1 to fill up a medium car tank in Venezuela whereas in Colombia it costs approximately $1.49 for a liter of gas. As a result of the price disparity, gangs in Venezuela smuggle the subsidized goods from Venezuela into Colombia and then resell them for a greater profit. The profits are then used to finance drug wars and guerrillas. It’s estimated that 100,000 barrels of petrol a day were being smuggled into Colombia prior to the border closures. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has said that as much as 40 percent of imported and domestically produced Venezuelan food gets smuggled into Colombia. In total, Venezuela estimates annual loses of $3.7 billion due to the black market for subsidized goods. The rampant smuggling of goods into Colombia is cited as a main cause of food shortages in Venezuela which led thousands of people to start protesting in the western Venezuelan states of Tachira and Merida in January.
The international community remains unsure of how the alleged unilateral border closure will affect the historically rocky relationship between Colombia and Venezuela. The relationship between the two countries was tense during the previous presidency in Colombia. Former Colombian President Uribe accused Venezuela of harboring and aiding Colombian rebels belonging to FARC, a group that engages in acts of terrorism and smuggles drugs, in Venezuelan territory. Though former Venezuelan President Chavez denied such allegations, Uribe's government publicly presented photos, videos, and maps of what it said were Colombian rebel camps inside Venezuela. Chavez accused Uribe of trying to start a war and accused Uribe of trying to "make Colombia into the Israel of South America." This culminated in the cutting of diplomatic ties between the two countries on July 22nd, 2010.
In early August, after Juan Manuel Santos was elected the new President of Colombia, Santos and Chavez attempted to repair the relationship between the two countries agreeing to “transparent, direct, respectful dialogue.” The two presidents also agreed to boost co-operation between their foreign ministers to jointly come up with a strategy to deal with economic and security problems.
In 2013, after Nicolas Maduro became President of Venezuela, Colombian President Santos met with Henrique Capriles, a Venezuelan opposition leader contesting Maduro’s election. Maduro called Santos’ meeting a betrayal and threatened to withdraw his country’s support for peace talks between the Colombian government and FARC rebels. Just a week later on July 23rd, 2013, the two presidents agreed to resume their bilateral work and move past the incident. The two leaders have since appeared to be maintaining a close and amicable relationship.
In late 2013 and early 2014, Maduro’s regime faced severe economic and political turmoil. Maduro’s new petrol trade policies and heavy subsidization of consumer goods led to shortages of products as basic as toilet paper. As a result, many communities across Venezuela are in desperate need of imported goods, further complicating the decision to close the border.
Though both counties are troubled by the black market for subsidized goods and though there have been initial successes in the closing of the border at night with 20,000 barrels of oil seized in just 8 days, there is no telling how the unilateral closing of borders could affect the historically fragile relationship between Colombia and Venezuela.