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WORLD NEWS Wednesday 31 august 2022
Venezuela, Colombia take step toward normalizing ties

By REGINA GARCIA CANO ulation in Colombia," Ro-
Associated Press dríguez said. Of the more
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) than 6 million Venezuelans
— The governments of Ven- who have left their country
ezuela and Colombia took as a result of a protracted
a step toward normalizing crisis, about 2 million live in
ties Monday when Presi- Colombia.
dent Nicolás Maduro host- Duque supported the eco-
ed an event to welcome nomic sanctions the U.S.
the newly appointed am- and European Union im-
bassador from the neigh- posed on Venezuela and
boring country, a post that repeatedly accused Mad-
had been empty since 2019 uro of protecting some
over a diplomatic impasse. Colombian rebels. Mad-
Colombian Ambassador uro, meanwhile, accused
Armando Benedetti met Duque's government of
with Maduro a day after allowing people within Co-
arriving in Venezuela. He lombia to plot against Ven-
was designated to the post ezuela.
by new President Gustavo Colombia and Venezuela
Petro, who abandoned his share a border of about
conservative predecessor's 1,370 miles (2,200 kilome-
opposition to Maduro and ters). Bandits, drug traffick-
vowed to re-establish rela- Venezuela´s President Nicolas Maduro, right, meets Colombia's new ambassador Armando ers, paramilitary groups
Benedetti at Miraflores Palace in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, Aug 29, 2022. Colombia has not
tions with his government. had an ambassador in Venezuela since Feb. 2019. and guerrillas take advan-
Maduro and Benedetti met Associated Press tage of the remote and
at the Miraflores Palace in desolate landscape to op-
the capital, Caracas. opening of border crossing that former Colombian Chávez, to Colombia led erate, though that did not
Colombia, for decades bridges to commercial traf- President Iván Duque for to improved relations. Co- deter legal trade before
the region's strongest ally fic, the renewal of military years promoted plans to lombia's then-President Maduro ordered the clo-
of the United States, was collaboration to ease ten- topple his government. Juan Manuel Santos even sure of official border cross-
among dozens of countries sions in areas where armed Neither Maduro nor Bene- called Chávez his "new ing points in 2015.
that withdrew recognition groups operate and the detti made public state- best friend." Maduro ordered the bor-
of Maduro as Venezuela's resumption of Colombian ments immediately after However, Ronal Rodríguez, der shutdown as a result
legitimate leader after his consular services in Ven- their meeting. Benedetti a researcher at the Rosario of an attack suffered by
2018 re-election, which ezuela. earlier said he would speak University's Venezuela Ob- three soldiers and a civil-
they argued was fraudu- Venezuela's ambassador with Maduro about a presi- servatory, told The Associ- ian in a border town when
lent. to Colombia, Felix Plasen- dential meeting with Petro. ated Press that a meeting they were carrying out anti-
Petro, Colombia's first left- cia, also arrived at his post In 2010, when tensions ran between Petro and Madu- smuggling operations. Foot
ist president, and Maduro Sunday. high between the coun- ro in Colombia today could traffic eventually resumed,
have expressed willingness Maduro expelled all Co- tries, a visit by Maduro's be more complex. and some cargo contin-
to build a new stage of co- lombian diplomats in Feb- mentor and predecessor, "There could be protests ued to move through the
operation, including the re- ruary 2019. He maintains the late President Hugo from the Venezuelan pop- northern most bridge.q

Russian media: Ex-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev dead at 91

By JIM HEINTZ lapse of the authoritarian because he feared chaos
Associated Press Soviet state, the freeing of in a nuclear country.
MOSCOW (AP) — Mikhail Eastern European nations "The country was loaded
Gorbachev, who as the from Russian domination to the brim with weapons.
last leader of the Soviet and the end of decades And it would have immedi-
Union waged a losing bat- of East-West nuclear con- ately pushed the country
tle to salvage a crumbling frontation. into a civil war," he said.
empire but produced ex- His decline was humiliat- Many of the changes, in-
traordinary reforms that ing. His power hopelessly cluding the Soviet break-
led to the end of the Cold sapped by an attempted up, bore no resemblance
War, has died at 91, Rus- coup against him in Au- to the transformation that
sian media reported Thurs- gust 1991, he spent his last Gorbachev had envi-
day. months in office watch- sioned when he became
News organizations quot- ing republic after republic the Soviet leader in March
ed a statement from the declare independence 1985. Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev speaks to the As-
Central Clinical Hospital as until he resigned on Dec. By the end of his rule he sociated Press during an interview at his foundation's head-
saying he died after a long 25, 1991. The Soviet Union was powerless to halt the quarters, in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Dec. 9, 2016.
illness. No other details wrote itself into oblivion a whirlwind he had sown. Associated Press
were given. day later. Yet Gorbachev may have
Though in power less than A quarter-century after the had a greater impact on were necessary for the "I am often asked, would I
seven years, Gorbachev collapse, Gorbachev told the second half of the 20th country and for Europe have started it all again if
unleashed a breathtak- The Associated Press that century than any other po- and the world," Gorbach- I had to repeat it? Yes, in-
ing series of changes. But he had not considered us- litical figure. ev told The AP in a 1992 in- deed. And with more per-
they quickly overtook him ing widespread force to try "I see myself as a man who terview shortly after he left sistence and determina-
and resulted in the col- to keep the USSR together started the reforms that office. tion," he said.q