"The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry has asked for the approval of the Colombian Foreign Ministry and he will soon be in Bogota", said the President. | Photo: Presidential Press 

Caracas, August 12 (RHC)-- The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, appointed on Thursday the former Minister for Foreign Affairs, Félix Plasencia, as the country's next ambassador to Colombia, in the framework of the process for the reestablishment of bilateral relations.

"The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry has requested the approval of the Colombian Foreign Ministry and will soon be in Bogota," said the president.  In addition, he specified that a special team on Colombia was formed, led by Executive Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, to deal with various issues of interest between the two nations.

"I have formed a special team on Colombia to work, a very serious plan, for the progressive programmed opening of the entire border, the opening to trade, to investment," said the Bolivarian leader.

President Maduro assured that Plasencia is a "man of great diplomatic and political experience, of great capacity for relations."  He said that "we will continue at a sure pace, advancing in the reconstruction of political, diplomatic and commercial relations."

Subsequently, the Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, announced the appointment of former congressman Armando Benedetti as ambassador of his country in Venezuela.  "I have decided in response to the Venezuelan government that has appointed an ambassador, who will be responsible for normalizing diplomatic relations between the two countries, to appoint Armando Benedetti as Colombia's ambassador to Venezuela," he said.

The Venezuelan Foreign Minister Carlos Faría and the Colombian Minister of Foreign Affairs Álvaro Leyva held a meeting last July to coordinate actions to reestablish relations between both countries.