Bogota—While Venezuela looks forward to new tax revenues from its recent deal to expand gasoline exports to Colombia, the Colombian government hopes the agreement strikes a blow to organized crime and terror groups controlling a lucrative cross-border smuggling racket. Mauricio Cardenas, Colombia’s mining and energy minister, said in an interview May 22 that the agreement he signed with Venezuelan counterpart Rafael Ramirez in Caracas last week will add as many as four border provinces to an arrangement that since last year has involved legal shipments of Venezuelan gasoline to North Santander and Guajira, both Colombian border states.
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