Venezuela leader’s first foreign trip abruptly cancelled
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Ms Delcy Rodriguez took power in Venezuela in January, after former leader Nicolas Maduro was captured by US forces.
PHOTO: ALEJANDRO CEGARRA/NYTIMES
- Delcy Rodriguez, Venezuela's interim leader, cancelled her first foreign visit to Cucuta, Colombia, hours before arrival.
- The meeting with President Petro aimed to mark improved relations amid US-backed reforms in Venezuela.
- The reason for the abrupt cancellation remains unclear; a stage erected for the event was dismantled.
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CUCUTA, Colombia - The first foreign visit of Venezuela’s US-backed interim leader, Ms Delcy Rodriguez, since taking power was abruptly cancelled on March 12, just hours before she was due to arrive in Colombia.
“Everything is cancelled,” a Colombian foreign ministry source told AFP.
Ms Rodriguez was due to travel to the border town of Cucuta on March 13 for a summit with Colombian President Gustavo Petro.
An AFP reporter saw a stage that was erected for the event being dismantled.
It was not immediately clear why the trip had been abandoned.
Ms Rodriguez took power in January when her former boss, Mr Nicolas Maduro, was captured by US forces and spirited to the United States to face trial.
Since then, she has faced down anti-American hardliners to embark on a series of US-backed reforms.
She has opened Venezuela’s vast oil industry to foreign investment, sacked officials suspected of corruption, released scores of political prisoners, and, according to Bogota, begun pushing Colombian rebels back across the border.
Cucuta, which lies in a border area, is home to numerous drug-running left-wing guerilla groups – which Colombia has accused Venezuela of funding and protecting.
The meeting was to mark a thaw in relations between the two South American neighbours. AFP
