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CARACAS, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- The border between Venezuela and Colombia was re-opened on Friday night in an attempt to allow heavy-loaded vehicles to pass between the two countries for bilateral trade, said the Venezuelan governor of the western border state Tachira, Jose Vielma Mora.
Close to midnight on Friday, Vielma Mora said that the decision taken to re-open the border was a response to an instruction given by Venezuela's president, Nicolas Maduro, the second stage in the "gradual and controlled" re-opening of the bi-national border.
In this way, he said that with the border open, food and products will now be able to be transported, specifically via the International Simon Bolivar bridge that connects the Venezuelan town of San Antonio in Tachira with the Colombian town of Cucuta.
The designated timetable for freight vehicles to travel across the border is Monday to Friday, from 20:00 to 24:00 (Venezuelan time).
However, governor Vielma Mora said that the schedule could be extended if there are vehicles waiting on both sides of the border.
President Nicolas Maduro said before that the re-opening of the border, will consist of three stages. The first relates to pedestrian traffic, the second involves commercial drive and the third includes regularizing the issue of fuel.
The border between Colombia and Venezuela, which stretches for 2,219 kilometers, was decreed closed by Maduro on Aug. 19, 2015, after Caracas reported a "paramilitary attack" against three soldiers from its Bolivarian National Armed Force (FANB).
