CARACAS — Venezuela's acting president Delcy Rodríguez welcomed Colombian President Gustavo Petro at the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas on April 24, 2026, for talks covering migration, defense, border security, industrial cooperation and trade. The two leaders embraced and waved before entering the palace.

Petro became the first foreign leader to visit Venezuela since the U.S. military seized former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife from their home on January 3, 2026. The April 24 meeting was the first between Petro and Rodríguez since that operation. A planned meeting between the two in the Colombian border town of Cúcuta in March 2026 was canceled, with their governments citing force majeure without explanation.

Ahead of the April talks, Petro announced that his delegation, which includes senior military and police officials, would address border security with Rodríguez. The discussions were expected to focus on security issues along the 2,200-kilometre Colombia-Venezuela frontier, a trade route and migration corridor also used by criminal drug smuggling and paramilitary groups. Rival armed groups fight for territorial control in the Catatumbo region along that border. Colombia's government says the meeting aims to contribute to a resolution of Venezuela's political crisis.

"Close collaboration on intelligence is necessary, and without it bombs land in the wrong places and end up killing civilians," Petro said. Petro also condemned U.S. strikes on suspected drug-smuggling boats in Latin America that killed Colombian nationals.

Petro did not recognize Maduro as Venezuela's legitimate president following the contested July 2024 elections that led to protests and subsequent repression, but he maintained diplomatic ties with Caracas. Previous Colombian governments had accused Maduro of collaborating with criminal groups operating along the border, and U.S. criminal charges against him were partly based on those accusations.

"The abduction of my friend Nicolás Maduro is an assault on sovereignty in Latin America," Petro said. The U.S. government says the operation was a law enforcement action to bring Maduro to justice. The U.S. does not recognize Maduro as the legitimate leader of Venezuela.

Rodríguez, who served as Maduro's vice president, cooperated with U.S. demands to halt oil exports to Cuba, open Venezuela's state-owned oil industry to foreign companies, and release political prisoners. She accepted an invitation to meet with the U.S. president in the United States, though no date has been set. On April 23, 2026, U.S. envoy John Barrett arrived in Caracas to oversee a U.S. plan for Venezuela intended to culminate in new elections.