Venezuela appointed former minister Gustavo Marquez as the country’s
ambassador to Bogotá. Colombia had been without Venezuelan ambassador
after it attacked a FARC camp in Ecuador nearly a year ago.
According to Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional, Bogotá will also send a new ambassador to Venezuela. Current director of the Colombo-Venezuelan chamber Maria Luisa Chiappe will be the top Colombian diplomat in Caracas.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez broke off all diplomatic ties with his neighbor after the Colombian army killed FARC commander Raul Reyes and more than 20 others in a cross border raid in March 2008.
The two countries have improved relations step by step since then, but the Venezuelan embassy in Bogotá has remained unattended.
Marquez used to be the Minister for Foreign Trade of Colombia’s leftist neighbor. His appointment, together with Chávez’s visit to Colombia this week, seem to be attempts at strengthening the trade relations between the two countries, whose economies are under severe pressure because of the global economic crisis and the low oil price.
The appointments have not been officially confirmed by the Venezuelan and Colombian governments.
