The border dispute between neighboring Colombia and
Venezuela continued to escalate over the weekend. Colombian state-owned oil
company Ecopetrol responded
to what it called “false accusations” issued by Venezuelan president Nicolás
Maduro that the Colombian oil company has been involved in the business of
smuggling gas into Colombia from Venezuela.
The company said in a press release that it “emphatically
rejects the Venezuelan president’s declarations, who affirmed that Ecopetrol
buys contraband gasoline and that a scheme exists in Colombia to launder
contraband gasoline.” Ecopetrol reminded that press that it has a strong
internal system to verify the origins of its oil and gas products, and that it
has the storage capacity and infrastructure to fully meet Colombia’s oil and
gasoline demand.
Colombia’s response didn’t stop there. President Juan Manuel
Santos pulled no punches last week in a speech criticizing
Venezuela’s “self-destructing” socialist state. He asserted that Venezuela’s
problems are made in Venezuela, and are fundamentally products of ex President
Hugo Chavez’s failed Bolivarian revolution. Currently, Venezuela is racked by
hyperinflation, food scarcity, and endemic violence and crime.
In
Colombian mining-related news, the Colombian Ministry of Mines and Energy welcomed
British mining company Gemfields’ arrival
to Colombia. Gemfields is currently applying for exploration and production
licenses to extract emeralds in the department of Boyacá. This marks an
important step in the Colombian government’s formalization of the country’s
fragmented mining industry.
No comments:
Post a Comment