(VOVworld) - Venezuela and Colombia have agreed to reopen pedestrian border crossings between their countries, 8 days after Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced to the closing of his country's border with Colombia to combat crime neighboring countries. Venezuelan Communications Minister Ernesto Villegas said on Twitter that presidents Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela and Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia made the decision during a Monday night telephone call. The border will reopen under tighter control by security forces.

Venezuela and Colombia have agreed to reopen pedestrian border crossings between their countries (Source: AFP/VNA)

Venezuela decided to shut down its border with Colombia and Brazil in order to prevent gangs from neighboring countries carrying a huge volume of 100-bolivar bank notes back into Venezuela to trade for new bills, following Mr Maduro’s decision to remove the 100-bolivar note from circulation before the new bills were released.

The 100-bolivar note is worth about 15 US cents at the highest official rate, and until recently accounted for 77 percent of the cash in circulation in Venezuela.