Ahead of Tuesday’s visit, Colombian Foreign Minister Rosa Yolanda Villavicencio said that much of the conversation would focus on shared US and Colombian concerns over security in Venezuela, with which Colombia shares a 1,367 mile (2,200km) border.
Much of that border is under the sway of the National Liberation Army, or ELN. This Colombian guerrilla group, which was founded in the 1960s, controls drug trafficking, extortion, contraband and illegal mining of gold and coltan in border states such as Zulia, Táchira, Apure, and Amazonas – and works with corrupt elements of the Venezuelan government.
While in Colombia the group operates against the government, in Venezuela it often serves the interests of the state, according to security analysts, and operates as a paramilitary-style organisation.
Insight Crime, a Medellin-based think-tank, estimates that 1,200 of the group’s approximately 6,000 members operate in Venezuela, with a presence in eight of its 24 states.
“There will be a constructive conversation about the path forward for stabilising and securing the Venezuelan-Colombian border and US-Colombia relations,” Democratic Senator Chris Coons told the BBC ahead of the Trump-Petro meeting.