Venezuela, Colombia pledge military cooperation on first post-Maduro visit

• Venezuela and Colombia pledged military cooperation to combat border “mafias” during Petro’s first visit to Caracas since Nicolás Maduro’s ouster.

Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez and her Colombian counterpart Gustavo Petro pledged military cooperation to combat "mafias" on their shared border, as Petro became the first foreign leader to visit Venezuela since the abduction of Nicolas Maduro.

Petro met with Rodriguez, who took over on an interim basis after the abduction of her former boss Maduro by US forces in January.

Petro said the joint military effort will be aimed at "freeing border areas from the mafias engaged in a range of illegal businesses, starting with cocaine, illicit gold, human trafficking and rare minerals."

"Both countries have undertaken the task of making...military plans, but also the immediate establishment of mechanisms for sharing information and for developing intelligence," Rodriguez said for her part.

Rodriguez assumed power in Venezuela after a lightning US military raid on Caracas on January 3 captured socialist president Maduro and brought him to New York to face drug trafficking charges.

President Donald Trump's administration backs Rodriguez's interim government, which has opened Venezuela's oil industry to US companies.

On Friday, the new head of the US diplomatic mission in Venezuela, John Barrett, met with Rodriguez, with state broadcaster VTV airing footage of the encounter at the Miraflores presidential palace.

Rodriguez on Thursday had said the relationship between Venezuela and the United States meant "cooperation that is a win-win for both countries." The US embassy resumed operations in Caracas at the end of March.

Petro fiercely criticized the US operation and has been vilified by Trump, who accuses the leftist leader of not doing enough to combat drug production.

A summit between Petro and Rodriguez had been scheduled for March in the Colombian border town of Cucuta, but was cancelled at the last minute.

The area around Cucuta is home to numerous drug-running, left-wing guerrilla groups, which Colombia has long accused Venezuela of funding and protecting.