Cucuta: Venezuela’s opposition and activists Saturday prepared to confront troops stationed along the country’s borders to block the latter’s plan to bring in food and medicine that authorities are calling a veiled US-backed invasion.
Opposition volunteers in neighbouring Brazil and Colombia plan to arrive at the border to help carry humanitarian aid to a sick and hungry population suffering from an economic meltdown under President Nicolas Maduro.
Juan Guaido, recognised by most Western nations as the country’s legitimate head of state, defied court orders not to leave Venezuela by arriving Friday in the Colombian border city of Cucuta, where aid from the US and Colombian governments is stockpiled in warehouses.
SHOWDOWN LOOMS
- Trucks are expected to be driven by Venezuelan volunteers and some opposition figures have suggested forming human chains
- A group of frustrated Venezuelans, who were seeking to cross into Colombia Saturday to work, threw rocks and bottles at National Guard troops, who responded with tear gas
- Four National Guard officers Saturday at the border disavowed Maduro’s government and requested assistance from the Colombian government
Guaido, 35, head of the opposition-run Congress, has provided few details on the transport plan. Trucks are expected to be driven by Venezuelan volunteers and some opposition figures have suggested forming human chains.
“Today the obstacles that the dictatorship created will tomorrow be rivers of unity, of peace,” Guaido said in a news conference Friday in Cucuta, where he was received by Colombian President Ivan Duque.
Venezuelan soldiers may bar the way.
A group of frustrated Venezuelans, who were seeking to cross into Colombia Saturday to work, threw rocks and bottles at National Guard troops, who responded with tear gas.
At least four National Guard officers Saturday at the border disavowed Maduro’s government and requested assistance from the Colombian government, Colombia’s migration agency said Saturday.
Videos on social media showed crowds first jeering and then cheering the men as they were escorted away by Colombian police.
Maduro blames the country’s dire situation on US sanctions that have blocked the country from obtaining financing and have hobbled the OPEC nation’s oil industry. Rodriguez said the aid is poisoned.
Nearly 2,00,000 people attended a benefit concert in Cucuta Friday featuring Latin pop stars, including Luis Fonsi of ‘Despacito’ fame, many of whom called on Maduro to step down.
