Venezuelan Minister of Foreign Affairs Nicolás Maduro arrived on Friday in the Colombian city of Cartagena to take part in a summit against drug traffic in representation of President Hugo Chávez.

"Regards from President Chávez, from the Venezuelan delegation," Maduro briefly told reporters before the opening of the regional summit. President Chávez gave up at the very last minute, reported Efe.

Some "domestic policy" issues, according to diplomatic sources, made Chávez cancel his trip to Cartagena, announced by himself on Thursday afternoon. A few hours earlier, he had commissioned Minister of the Interior and Justice Ramón Rodríguez Chacín to act as the Venezuelan delegate in the meeting.

Maduro noted that he had gone to Cartagena to exchange experiences with the 24 countries that are represented in the Extended Regional Summit on the Global Issue of Illicit Drugs, Security and Cooperation in the Caribbean, Central America, Colombia, México and Venezuela.