Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro (L) & Brazilian President Lula da Silva (R), May 30, 2023. | Photo: Twitter/ @NicolasMaduro

Brasilia, June 1 (RHC)-- In meetings parallel to the presidential summit held in Brasilia on Tuesday, Presidents Nicolas Maduro (Venezuela) and Lula da Silva (Brazil) were present at the signing of cooperation agreements between their countries.

In a ceremony held at the Itamaraty Palace, where 11 South American presidents were meeting to promote new forms of regional integration, Venezuela and Brazil signed a Memorandum of Understanding on agri-food matters.  The Venezuelan Agriculture Minister Wilmar Castro and the Brazilian Foreign Affairs Minister Mauro Vieira signed the agreement whose purpose is to deepen exchanges in the areas of agriculture, livestock, and food sovereignty.

Vieira and the Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Minister Yvan Gil also signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the establishment of the supervision and follow-up mechanism of the Brazil-Venezuela Bilateral Cooperation Program, which seeks to promote technical cooperation based on the exchange of knowledge and experiences.

On Tuesday, Gil and Colombian Foreign Minister Alvaro Leyva signed the Agreement for the Creation of the Neighborhood and Integration Commission, which will promote cooperation in common border spaces and business complementarity.

During the ceremony, Presidents Maduro and Gustavo Petro ratified their commitment to consolidate diplomatic relations between their countries, which were resumed in August 2022, when Petro assumed the Colombian presidency.

Maduro and Petro also agreed to start the search for the remains of Colombians who were killed by paramilitary groups in the 2000s and 2010s.  These remains were dumped in Venezuelan territory, according to what Salvatore Mancuso, the former head of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), told the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP).