Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodriguez arrived in Barbados for her second official trip in office, El Pais reported on April 26. On April 24, Colombian President Gustavo Petro met with Rodriguez in Caracas, becoming the first head of state to visit Venezuela's capital since the Jan. 3 U.S. capture of then-President Nicolas Maduro.

Why It Matters: Rodriguez will seek to consolidate power and develop partnerships with neighboring countries to pursue strategic goals, from fighting transnational criminal groups to deepening energy integration, as part of her broader balancing act of appeasing Washington while securing domestic political support. Regarding Colombia, both countries are likely to focus on defense and security cooperation since their shared border is widely used for drug trafficking, a priority issue for the U.S. Trump administration. Efforts to repair and operate a transnational gas pipeline will likely be another priority given Colombia's growing demand and need to secure additional supply; in exchange, Bogota could provide electricity to parts of Venezuela facing occasional blackouts and also enable the country's oil revamp.

Some 3 million Venezuelan migrants have settled in Colombia in recent years, while Colombian drug trafficking groups operate across the border and use Venezuela as a route for aerial drug trafficking toward Central America and the United States. Both Venezuela and Colombia have faced increased U.S. pressure from the Trump administration to reduce northbound drug flows. Meanwhile, Rodriguez has adopted an accommodative stance toward the United States amid broader efforts to consolidate power by replacing several high-ranking military and government officials.