Venezuela Evaluates Returning to Andean Community of Nations

Venezuela is evaluating the possibility of returning to the Andean Community of Nations (CAN), a regional integration institution from which this South American country withdrew in 2006.

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"President Nicolas Maduro has spoken of the return of Venezuela to the CAN under new conditions, considering not only the vulnerabilities of our country as a blocked nation, but also its potential," the Bolivarian Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said.

At the presentation of the "Economy and Development Report" of the Latin American Development Bank (CAF) in Caracas, she stated that the reestablishment of diplomatic relations with Colombia does not have merely commercial purposes but rather seeks to promote a broader productive integration between the two countries.

In this regard, Rodriguez pointed out that Tachira and other Venezuelan border states have the capacity to produce and export to Colombia goods and services related to agribusiness, petrochemicals, and textiles.

The Andean Community of Nations originated from the "Cartagena Agreement," which was signed by Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, and Peru in 1969. Venezuela joined this subregional integration scheme in 1973.

Three years later, the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship removed Chile from the "Andean Pact," thus propitiating a process of institutional weakening that took time to overcome.

Later, in 2006, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez withdrew his country from the CAN, assuring that this organization was "mortally wounded" due to the free trade agreement negotiations undertaken by Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, and the United States.

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