Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro canceled on Monday a planned trip to Santo Domingo to meet with Leonel Fernández, the president of Dominican Republic.

The meeting was intended to pave the way for the mediation process initiated by Fernández for a rapprochement of the governments of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and his Colombian counterpart Álvaro Uribe.

However, Venezuelan diplomatic sources told AFP that the reason why Maduro did not travel to the Caribbean island was the discomfort of the Venezuelan government with the fact that Dominican Republican authorities have not consulted with Venezuela the "mediation agenda" implemented by Leonel Fernández.

Fernández met last week in Colombia with his counterpart Álvaro Uribe, and visited the border city of Cúcuta, where he met with Colombian retailers, who complained about the alleged barriers that the Venezuelan government has put to sell goods in its territory.

"Fernández established a unilateral agenda of mediation. We were not consulted about it and we have not approved the agenda," a Venezuelan source said on Monday. He announced that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would send a note to the Dominican authorities.

"In Cancún, (where the Rio Group Summit took place in February) there was an agreement that we would be consulted about the issue, but nobody has discussed with us about the mediation," the diplomatic source added.

Translated by Gerardo Cárdenas