Enclaved at the vertex of a vast geographic triangle with the Caribbean Sea as the base, the branch of the Venezuelan Andes as one side, and the branch of the Colombian Eastern Cordillera as the other, lies Cúcuta, population one million. Not only is it a natural border, but it’s also a political and cultural frontier. Where the mountains end, the Zulia River valley begins, shaping the large transnational basin, known as Lake Marcaibo. During the period of Spanish colonialism, the region was converted into the political-administrative limit of what much later would become Colombia and Venezuela, precisely at the centre of the natural, cultural and political area where the first constitution was drafted —The Constitution of Cúcuta or of Gran Colombia— for a nation formed by what are now four countries: Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, and Ecuador. Read more