From right- Chile’s President Sebastian Pinera, Colombia’s President Ivan Duque,
Paraguay’s President Mario Abdo Benitez and Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido.
Photo courtesy of Colombia Presdient Twitter
Bogota, COLOMBIA, Feb 24 (NNN- AGENCIES) – Venezuela’s US-backed opposition on Saturday met with strong resistance from the army and militias as they tried to bring humanitarian aid into the country, with at least four people reported killed and dozens injured.
Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido is trying to bring aid to hundreds of thousands of people who he says are in urgent need of food and medicine. But President Nicolas Maduro regards the aid as a US plot to topple him and does not want to let it through.
Four people were shot dead by pro-government armed groups during protests demanding the entry of Brazilian aid trucks which were stuck behind the border, the daily El Nacional quoted the non-governmental organization Foro Penal as saying. Nearly 30 people were reported to have been injured.
The incident occurred in Santa Elena de Uairen in Venezuela’s Bolivar state, which borders Brazil.
The secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro, confirmed the incident. “Our condolences because of the dead and injured in Santa Elena, victims of a repressive usurper regime,” he tweeted.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo denounced the violence on Twitter and said “the US will take action against those who oppose the peaceful restoration of democracy in Venezuela.”
“What kind of a sick tyrant stops food from getting to hungry people?” he he wrote.
The main aid effort was taking place on the border between Venezuela and the Colombian city of Cucuta, where hundreds of tons of aid donated mainly by the United States have been stored.
Colombian President Ivan Duque on Saturday officially handed the supplies over to Guaido, who has been recognized by dozens of countries as Venezuela’s interim president.
Duque said that preventing the supplies from entering “could constitute a crime against humanity.” He and Guaido called on the Venezuelan army to be “on the right side of history” and to let the aid through.
About 14 trucks carrying 280 tons of supplies travelled to bridges crossing from Colombia into the Venezuelan region of Tachira. Caracas has closed the bridges to keep the aid out.
The Venezuelan army stopped trucks trying to cross the Simon Bolivar and Francisco de Paula Santander bridges, using tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse crowds accompanying them, according to television reports.
Two trucks which were on their way across the border were set on fire, a spokesman for Colombia’s migration authority said.
Dozens of people were injured.
Venezuelan soldiers also clashed with pro-aid demonstrators in the city of Urena on the Venezuelan side of the border. They set on fire a bus which had been due to take volunteers to the Colombian side to help distribute aid, broadcaster Caracol reported.
Smoke was rising from tyres that protesters had set on fire.
The unrest spread to the town of San Antonio de Tachira. In the village of Boca De Grita, some people climbed on top of tanks, according to Caracol.
Large demonstrations for and against the aid operation also took place in the capital Caracas, where no violence was reported. Maduro told a crowd he would “never surrender” and that “the fatherland” was defending its frontiers and its independence.
He announced a rupture of Venezuela’s diplomatic relations with “fascist” Colombia and gave its diplomats 24 hours to leave.
Colombian Foreign Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo responded that Colombia did not recognize Maduro as president, but that it would pull its diplomatic staff out of Caracas to guarantee their security.
Venezuela had already severed relations with the US, Colombia’s close ally.
Guaido said late Saturday he planned to meet US Vice President Mike Pence on Monday.
They plan to have talks at a meeting of 11 Latin American foreign ministers which comprise the Lima Group, Guaido said in Cucutua.
An increasing number of Venezuelan soldiers were meanwhile heeding a call from Guaido to turn against Maduro and defect.
At least 60 security force members have so far crossed into Colombia, according to the migration authority.
They included members of Venezuela’s National Guard, army, navy, police and the FAES special forces. The vast majority of them entered the department of Norte de Santander, where Cucuta is located.
US National Security Adviser John Bolton urged the army to side with Guaido. “Venezuela’s military has a choice: Embrace democracy, protect civilians, and allow in humanitarian aid; or face even more sanctions and isolation,” he tweeted.
Maduro has presided over a massive economic crisis, with annual inflation running at millions of per cent, while more than 3 million Venezuelans have fled abroad.
The president won an election boycotted by most of the opposition last year. The National Assembly, which is headed by Guaido, wants him to resign and to call a fresh poll.
