News Analysis: Colombia-Venezuela border agreement faces many challenges

The agreement reached on Monday between Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro in Ecuador's capital Quito to address the two countries' border crisis is faced with many challenges, analysts said.

The month-long dispute has seen border crossings between Colombia and Venezuela closed, over 1,100 Colombians deported, and their ambassadors recalled.

During their meeting on Monday, the two heads of state promised to build on the agreement that will resolve the problems of the shared border.

Venezuelan political analyst Victor Juarez said the results of Monday's meeting could help resolve the bilateral problem and, if successful, will also show Latin America as a place of peace and dialogue.

"The mediation of ECLAC (United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean) and Unasur (the Union of South American Nations) in this spat has been vital. It has helped validate regional integration mechanisms as legitimate organizations that can help promote dialogue and coexistence on the continent," Juarez told Xinhua.

However, he added that Bogota and Caracas faced "crucial challenges" in solving their border problems that have developed over the last few decades, in part due to armed conflicts inside Colombia.

"Colombia must figure out a way to provide education, healthcare, food and other effective social policies, and prevent the smuggling of subsidized Venezuelan products and fuel," the expert said.

Juan Carlos Tanus, president of the Civil Association of Colombians in Venezuela, said the Quito meeting marked the start of new cooperation at the border.

"It is essential for Colombia to assume its responsibilities at the border such as cracking down on paramilitary violence and economic attacks against the Venezuelan currency. It must propose initiatives to change this reality," Tanus told Xinhua.

"If Colombia does not change its policy of seeking to influence the Venezuelan bolivar and does not cooperate with Caracas to capture paramilitary and drug trafficking groups, then the border should remain closed," he added.

"Intense smuggling activities" at the border, particularly in the western states of Tachira and Zulia, have caused shortages of certain goods and services in Venezuela, Tanus said.

Recent figures published by Venezuela's national oil company PDVSA estimate that the border closure in the last month has prevented at least 30 million liters of fuel from being smuggled into Colombia.

"The fuel smuggled out (from Venezuela) to Colombia is an issue that must be resolved in the short-term as it causes Venezuela to lose millions of U.S. dollars every day," Tanus said.

Venezuela's price controls and heavy subsidies created opportunities for smugglers to buy a great number of things, from corn flour to fuel, and resell the goods across the border at an enormous profit.

On Aug. 19, Maduro ordered a border shutdown after an attack on Venezuelan troops by alleged Colombian paramilitary groups.

However, Colombians have been moving across the border since the 1970s, fleeing decades of civil war and drawn by Venezuela's once-booming oil economy and tradition of welcoming immigrants.

Over 5.6 million Colombians reside legally in Venezuela, enjoying access to social programs that don't exist in Colombia, including free housing and health care. As part of the border crackdown, more than 1,100 Colombians have been deported.

Maduro's administration has insisted this was not an anti-Colombian move but a way to "clean" the area of violent groups. Endi