Colombian President Gustavo Petro confirmed on Friday that he intends to travel to Caracas on April 24 to meet with Venezuela's interim president Delcy Rodriguez.
Petro made the disclosure during an interview with the Spanish public broadcaster RTVE. He said the trip to the Venezuelan capital follows an attempted meeting in a Colombian town on the border between the two countries that did not take place because of security concerns.
According to Petro, the border meeting was aborted when Rodriguez indicated there were security issues that prevented the encounter from going ahead. Both governments had previously described an earlier planned meeting, set for mid-March, as called off due to a case of "force majeure." At that time no further details were provided.
Petro is currently in Barcelona to take part in the event described as the Global Progressive Mobilisation, a two-day gathering of left-leaning international leaders organised by Spain together with left-wing political networks. The organisers say the forum aims to mobilise these movements in response to the rise of the far right.
In his RTVE interview, Petro reiterated the intent to pursue the bilateral encounter in Caracas after the earlier attempt on the border did not proceed. The article does not provide further specifics about the Caracas meeting agenda, security arrangements for the visit, or whether additional diplomatic or logistical steps have been agreed by both sides.
The circumstances around the cancelled mid-March meeting remain limited in detail in public statements. Both governments used the phrase "force majeure" at the time to explain why the meeting did not take place, but did not elaborate on the precise nature of that determination. The current announcement indicates a renewed effort to hold a face-to-face meeting at a later date and in a different location.
At the time of his interview in Barcelona, Petro framed the trip as the next step following the aborted border engagement, while attendees and participants at the Global Progressive Mobilisation focus on broader political coordination among left-leaning parties and groups.
Note: The article limits itself to the statements made by President Petro and the prior official characterization of the cancelled meeting as a case of "force majeure." It contains no additional detail on security assessments, diplomatic protocols, or agendas for the planned Caracas meeting.