Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

In 1843, the first Brazilian diplomatic delegation was established in Venezuela. Brazil shares its third-longest land border with Venezuela, stretching 2,199 km. The only road border crossing is Santa Elena de Uairén/Pacaraima. The Cucuí crossing, on the triple border with Colombia, is accessible by river (Negro and Orinoco rivers). For a long time, the Amazon, which was poorly connected to other regions of both countries, represented a physical barrier to greater bilateral rapprochement. From the 1970s onwards, the two countries strengthened bilateral and regional relations.

Since 1973, regular presidential meetings and frequent official visits from both sides have given dynamism to the common agenda, which includes topics of strategic interest, such as energy cooperation, border issues, trade exchange, economic and financial issues, population movements and regional integration. Other important milestones in the bilateral relationship include the signing of the La Guzmania Protocol (a political document that defined the direction of bilateral relations from then on), in 1994, the creation of the High-Level Binational Commission – COBAN (1994) and the launch of the Strategic Partnership (2005).

There are significant contingents of migrants from both countries in both territories. The Brazilian community in Venezuela is estimated at 13,000 people. According to more recent surveys, there are around 650,000 Venezuelans in Brazil. Operation Acolhida, a multisectoral task force to ensure assistance to Venezuelans, created in 2018, is considered an example of a humanitarian response to migratory flows.

Bilateral trade increased in the first decade of the 21st century, reaching $6 billion in 2013. It fell by almost 92% between 2013 and 2019, when it decreased to $501 million. More recently, it has grown again, reaching $1.6 billion in 2024, and has become a major exporter of the northern states of Brazil, especially Roraima and Amazonas. In 2024, Brazil exported $1.2 billion to Venezuela and imported $422 million from the country. Sugars and molasses, vegetable fats and oils, and chemical fertilizers are the main products on the trade agenda.

Under the auspices of the Basic Agreement on Technical Cooperation between the Government of the Federative Republic of Brazil and the Government of the Republic of Venezuela, signed in 1973, the two countries are developing a significant bilateral technical cooperation program. Currently, the bilateral cooperation program covers the following areas: (a) agriculture food issues, cooperation on food and nutritional sovereignty and security, and the development of the common Amazon border; (b) health, with an emphasis on coordinated initiatives in border areas; (c) fisheries and aquaculture, with emphasis on  native species and aquaculture development models; (d) social issues, with gender perspective and overcoming poverty as cross-cutting principles; and (e) risk management, disasters and civil protection, with mutual support in different emergency situations, including those related to climate change and food and nutritional insecurity.

Brazil currently represents the interests of Argentina and Peru, as well as the citizens of these countries, in Venezuela, which demonstrates the capacity of Brazilian diplomacy for dialogue with the most diverse governments.

Chronology of bilateral relations

2024 – Visit of Foreign Minister Yván Gil to Brasilia to take part  in the 1st Meeting of the Joint Commission of Foreign Ministers and Technicians of Guyana and Venezuela (January 25)

2023 – Visit of Vice President Delcy Rodríguez to Belém on the occasion of the Amazon Summit (August 8 and 9)

2023 – Participation of President Maduro in the Meeting of Presidents of South American Countries in Brasilia (May 30)

2023 - Official Visit of President Maduro to Brasilia (May 29)

2023 – Reestablishment of diplomatic relations between the two governments and reopening of the Brazilian Embassy in Caracas and of the Venezuelan Embassy in Brasilia (January 2023)

2023 - The President of the Venezuelan National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, attends the inauguration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (January 2023).

2020 – The Brazilian government closes the Brazilian Embassy in Caracas (April 16)

2014 – President Dilma Rousseff visits Caracas on the occasion of the 46th Summit of Heads of State of MERCOSUR and Associated States (July 29)

2014 – President Maduro visits Brasilia on the occasion of the BRICS-South American Countries Summit and the Summit of Leaders of China and Latin American and Caribbean Countries (July 17)

2013 – Presidents Dilma Rousseff and Maduro meet in Brasilia (May)

2013 – President Dilma Rousseff attends the inauguration of President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas (April)

2013 – President Dilma Rousseff attends the funeral of President Hugo Chávez in Caracas (March)

2012 – Presidents Dilma Rousseff and Hugo Chávez meet at the MERCOSUR Summit (July)

2011 – Presidents Dilma Rousseff and Hugo Chávez meet in Caracas (December)

2011 – Presidents Dilma Rousseff and Hugo Chávez meet in Brasília (June)

2011 – Fiber optic interconnection between Manaus and the city of Santa Helena, on the border with Venezuela, is inaugurated (February).

2011 – President Hugo Chávez attends the inauguration ceremony of President Dilma Rousseff (January)

2010 – Presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Hugo Chávez meet in Caracas (August)

2010 – Presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Hugo Chávez meet in Brasília (April)

2009 – Brazilian Congress approves the Protocol of Venezuela's Accession to MERCOSUR (December)

2009 – Presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Chávez meet in Caracas and El Tigre, in the state of Anzoátegui (October)

2009 – President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva receives President Chávez in Salvador (May)

2009 – Presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Hugo Chávez meet at the World Social Forum in Belém. The Presidents of Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay also participate in the meeting (January)

2009 – Presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Chávez meet at the headquarters of the “Maracaíbo Plain Socialist Agrarian Project” in Zulia, Venezuela (January)

2008 – President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva receives President Hugo Chávez in Manaus for a bilateral meeting and a quadripartite meeting between Brazil-Venezuela-Bolivia-Ecuador (September)

2007 – President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva visits Caracas (December)

2007 – President Chávez visits Manaus for a meeting with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Both decide to hold regular meetings (September)

2007 – Presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Hugo Chávez hold a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the 32nd MERCOSUR Summit in Rio de Janeiro (January)

2006 – President Hugo Chávez visits Brazil (December)

2006 – President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva visits Ciudad Guayana and participates in the ceremonies for the inauguration of the second bridge over the Orinoco River and the conclusion of the quantification and certification phases of the oil reserves of the Carabobo field (November)

2006 – Signing of the Protocol of Accession of Venezuela to MERCOSUR in Caracas (June)

2006 – Visit of President Hugo Chávez to Brasília for a trilateral meeting between Brazil, Venezuela and Argentina (January)

2005 – Visit of President Hugo Chávez to Brasília (August)

2005 – Meeting of the Presidents of Brazil, Venezuela and Argentina in Caracas (June)

2005 – President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva visits Ciudad Guayana for a quadripartite meeting between Brazil/Venezuela/Colombia/Spain (March)

2005 – President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva visits Caracas. The Strategic Alliance between Brazil and Venezuela is established (February)

2004 – Economic Complementation Agreement No. 59 (ACE-59) is signed between MERCOSUR, Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela (October)

2004 – President Hugo Chávez visits Manaus (September)

2003 – President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva visits Caracas and Puerto Ordaz (August)

2003 – President Hugo Chávez visits Recife (April)

2003 – The “Group of Friends of the OAS Secretary General for Venezuela” is created  on the initiative of  Brazil (January). The Group of Friends meets in Brasília (March)

2001 – Presidents Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Hugo Chávez inaugurate the electrical interconnection between Brazil and Venezuela (“Linhão de Guri”), with ceremonies in Santa Elena do Uairén and Boa Vista (August)

2001 – President Hugo Chávez visits Brazil to meet with President Fernando Henrique Cardoso (April)

2000 – President Hugo Chávez participates in the 1st Summit of South American Presidents. He holds a bilateral meeting with President Fernando Henrique Cardoso in Brasília (August/September)

2000 – President Fernando Henrique Cardoso visits Venezuela (April)

1999 – President Hugo Chávez visits Brazil to meet with President Fernando Henrique Cardoso in Manaus (September)

1999 – Economic Complementation Agreement No. 39 (ACE 23) is signed between Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Venezuela (August)

1999 – President Hugo Chávez makes his first official visit to Brazil (May)

1998 – President Fernando Henrique Cardoso visits Venezuela (November)

1997 – Eletronorte and Electrificación del Caroní (EDELCA) sign a contract to purchase and sell electricity from Venezuela to Brazil (April)

1996 – President of Venezuela, Rafael Caldera, visits Brazil (May)

1995 – President Fernando Henrique Cardoso visits Venezuela (July)

1994 – President Itamar Franco visits Venezuela and signs, with President Rafael Caldera, the Guzmania Protocol, which creates the High-Level Binational Commission (COBAN) (March)

1992 – President Carlos Andrés Pérez visits Brazil (November)

1990 – The Political Consultation Mechanism is established during the visit of Venezuelan Foreign Minister Reinaldo Planchart to Brazil

1989 – President José Sarney visits Venezuela (February)

1987 – President José Sarney visits Venezuela (October)

1986 – President Jaime Lusinchi visits Brazil (May)

1985 – President José Sarney visits Venezuela (September)

1981 – President of Venezuela, Luís Herrera Campíns, visits Brazil (August)

1979 – President João Figueiredo visits Venezuela (November)

1973 – Presidents Emílio Médici and Rafael Caldera meet at the “Marco BV-8” border crossing and continue on to the border town of Santa Elena do Uairén. This was the first visit by a Brazilian President to Venezuela. The Basic Technical Cooperation Agreement is signed (February)

1966 – Diplomatic relations between Venezuela and Brazil are reestablished

1964 – Based on the Betancourt Doctrine (defense of democratic regimes on the continent, 1958), Venezuela breaks off diplomatic relations with Brazil

1905 – Protocols signed in Caracas regarding the demarcation of the borders between Brazil and Venezuela, as stipulated by the Treaty of 1859

1891 – Venezuela appoints its first permanente Extraordinary Envoy and Minister Plenipotentiary, Domingos Santos Ramos, accredited in Rio de Janeiro (March)