Silent return of Colombian companies to Venezuela: business, risks, and millions at stake

Viviana Gutiérrez did not wait for Venezuela's political situation to change suddenly on January 3 to make a move. Two years ago, the administrative manager of Automex—a Bogota-based company that manufactures electrical boards and cells for the oil industry—had already dispatched a contract worth 15 billion pesos (about four million dollars) to a Venezuelan offshore platform: five equipment designed to sustain the production of a well in the Caribbean Sea. The boards left Bogota, crossed through Maicao, were transferred from trucks at the border, and arrived in Maracaibo by land, before being shipped offshore. The payment arrived from France because the final buyer was a multinational company with access to banks that Venezuela does not have.