Venezuela protests flare-up ahead of border aid Work

Four National Guard troops at the frontier disavowed Maduro’s socialist government following an appeal from opposition leader Juan Guaido to let aid through.

Venezuelan troops fired tear gas at angry protesters unable to cross into Colombia on Saturday after President Nicolas Maduro closed the border to stop the opposition bringing US humanitarian aid into the South American nation.

Demonstrators set up barricades and burned tires in the Venezuelan border town of Urena, as attention turned to whether National Guard troops stationed at the border crossing would fulfill Maduro’s orders to block humanitarian aid from reaching a sick and hungry population. Four National Guard troops at the frontier disavowed Maduro’s socialist government on Saturday, following an appeal from Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido to let aid through. A social media video showed the troops driving armored vehicles across a bridge linking the two countries, knocking over metal barricades in the process, and then jumping out of the vehicles and running to the Colombian side.

“Among the troops, whether they are in the army, air force, navy or National Guard, many people disagree (with what is happening),” one of the troops, an officer whose uniform carried the name Linarez, told reporters after entering Colombia, according to another video on social media. “You can’t say anything against the government. It’s treason.”

Colombia’s migration authority confirmed the defection of the four Venezuelan soldiers. Leaders of Venezuela’s ruling Socialist Party call the aid effort a veiled invasion backed by Washington, and insist that the United States should instead help Venezuela by lifting crippling financial and oil sector sanctions.

Venezuela’s opposition says that while the need for basic food and medicines is desperate, the aid operation is also meant to embarrass military officers who continue to support Maduro’s increasingly isolated government. Demonstrators in Urena who blocked roads and burned tires also threw rocks at security forces who responded with volleys of tear gas. The troops had earlier blocked people from crossing the border into Cucuta, where many Venezuelans now work, shop or send their children to school amid Venezuela’s continued economic collapse.

“We were all going to work. We want to work: the people attempted to force their way through,” said Viviana Meza, 29, who works in a Cucuta restaurant.

Guaido, recognized by most Western nations as Venezuela’s legitimate head of state, defied court orders not to leave the country when he traveled on Friday to Cucuta, where aid from the US and Colombian governments is stockpiled in warehouses.