Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Venezuela shuts its Brazil border
Maduro’s order part of effort to stop foes’ aid shipments
MEDELLIN, Colombia — President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela ordered its border with Brazil closed Thursday, part of his escalating effort to stop opponents from sending humanitarian aid into his poverty-stricken country.
Juan Guaido, the parliamentary opposition leader who declared himself president of Venezuela last month, has vowed to bring tons of aid donated by the United States and others into Venezuela on Saturday. Maduro, who has called Guaido an American lackey, has vowed not to let the aid in.
The Brazil-border closure, announced on television, followed a Venezuelan government announcement Wednesday that it would block air and sea travel between Venezuela and three Caribbean islands where the opposition said it wished to stage relief supplies.
“It’s better to prevent than to regret,” Maduro said.
The move comes 48 hours before the deadline set by the opposition for Maduro to end his aid blockade or have it broken by force. The situation has led to a tense standoff between the two sides and to fears of violence.
On Monday, President Donald Trump called on the military to abandon Maduro and allow the aid in or “lose everything.”
Maduro has said Venezuela is not a country of “beggars” and does not need the aid. But once-prosperous Venezuela is reeling from its worst economic crisis in history, with hunger, shortages and hyperinflation that Maduro’s opponents have blamed on corruption and mismanagement. More than 3 million Venezuelans have fled in recent years.
Brazil has said that it would be staging aid, with the help of the United States, in its western cities of Boa Vista and Pacaraima. The aid would be driven by Venezuelans into their country.
In the speech Wednesday, Maduro warned that Trump and Colombia President Ivan Duque were amassing military troops on the border of Colombia for a possible invasion. He said he was considering a “total closure of the Colombian border” in response.
Maduro already has stationed large shipping containers on a border bridge where the Colombian aid was staged. On Thursday, opposition supporters said they planned to storm the bridge and carry the containers away with heavy machinery.
Nurses, doctors, engineers and homemakers have volunteered by the thousands to distribute the food and medicine in the face of the government ban.
The volunteers anticipate running into roadblocks by soldiers who remain loyal to Maduro. They know that their chances of breaking through are slim, but they’re undaunted.
“There’s a lot of concern about how it’s going to come into the country,” said Dr. Danny Golindano, speaking to a group of volunteers through a crackly microphone at a Caracas plaza. “As health providers, it’s our duty.”
Guaido has said he will join activists on the Colombian border.
Early Thursday, a caravan of vehicles carrying Guaido left the Venezuelan capital of Caracas, heading toward the border with Colombia as part of the effort to bring in aid stored in the city of Cucuta starting Saturday.
Meanwhile, Vice President Mike Pence plans to meet Monday with representatives of Latin American nations gathering in Colombia amid a possible showdown with Maduro over delivery of U.S. and international aid.
Pence’s office said he would “voice the United States’ unwavering support for interim Guaido and highlight the Venezuelan people’s fight for democracy over dictatorship.”
Pence will try to “define concrete steps that support the Venezuelan people and a transition to democracy,” his office said in a statement Thursday.
“The struggle in Venezuela is between dictatorship and democracy, and freedom has the momentum. Juan Guaido is the only legitimate leader of Venezuela, and it’s time for Nicolas Maduro to go,” Pence spokesman Alyssa Farah said in the statement.