‘To the Venezuelans there, don’t give up: the blood that has been spilt was not in vain.’
JOSE LUIS ‘EL PUMA’ RODRÍGUEZ, Venezuelan singer
VENEZUELAN soldiers opened fire on indigenous people near the border with Brazil on Friday, killing two, as President Nicolas Maduro sought to block United States-backed efforts to bring aid into his economically devastated nation.
The socialist president, who took power in 2013 and was reelected in an election last year widely viewed as fraudulent, has declared Venezuela’s southern border with Brazil closed ahead of the opposition’s plan to bring in the aid yesterday. The government shuttered the Tachira frontier that connects here.
Some political analysts say the looming showdown is less about solving Venezuela’s needs and more about testing the military’s loyalty to Maduro by daring it to turn the aid away.
With inflation running at more than two million per cent a year and currency controls restricting imports of basic goods, a growing share of the country’s roughly 30 million people is suffering from malnutrition.
Opposition leader Juan Guaido showed up at a fundraising concert here, backed by British billionaire Richard Branson that was estimated to have attracted 200,000 people.
His appearance, arm in arm with Colombian President Ivan Duque, was an open challenge to Maduro, given that the pro-government Supreme Court has banned him from international travel on grounds he is under investigation for allegedly helping foreign countries to interfere in internal matters.
Friday’s violence broke out in the village of Kumarakapay in southern Venezuela after an indigenous community stopped a military convoy heading towards the border with Brazil that they believed was attempting to block aid, according to community leaders Richard Fernandez and Ricardo Delgado.
Soldiers later entered the village and opened fire, killing a couple and injuring several others.
“I stood up to them to back the humanitarian aid,” said Fernandez.
“And they came charging at us. They shot innocent people who were in their homes, working.”
Seven of the 15 injured were rushed by ambulance to a hospital in the Brazilian frontier city of Boa Vista, a spokesman for the state governor’s office said.
The bloodshed contrasted with a joyful mood at Branson’s “Venezuela Aid Live”, where Venezuelan and Colombian attendees, some crying, waved flags and chanted “freedom” under a baking sun.
“Is it too much to ask for freedom after 20 years of ignominy, of a populist Marxist dictatorship?” Venezuelan singer Jose Luis “El Puma” Rodríguez asked.
“To the Venezuelans there, don’t give up: the blood that has been spilt was not in vain.”
As well as the foreign aid stockpiled here, Guaido has vowed to bring in aid from the Brazilian town of Boa Vista and the Dutch Caribbean island of Curacao.