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posted by martyb on Sunday February 24 2019, @10:52AM   Printer-friendly
from the how-dare-you-try-and-help-my-people? dept.

Venezuela soldiers abandon posts at Colombia border

Soldiers from the Venezuelan national guard have left their posts ahead of an opposition-led effort to bring aid into the country, Colombia's migration agency said. In a separate development, Venezuelan troops have fired tear gas at people looking to cross into Colombia to work. Tensions have been rising over a row about the delivery of humanitarian aid.

President Nicolás Maduro said the border with Colombia is partly closed to stop aid being delivered. But self-declared interim president Juan Guaidó has vowed that hundreds of thousands of volunteers will help bring in the aid deliveries, which include food and medicine, on Saturday. The first delivery of aid has already entered Venezuela through Brazil, Mr Guaidó tweeted. The delivery of aid to the stricken country has proven to be a key area of contention between the two men who see themselves as Venezuela's leader.

National Guard fires tear gas amid Venezuela border tension

Venezuela's National Guard fired tear gas on opposition activists at a barricaded border bridge to Colombia on Saturday, and two protesters were killed near the border in Brazil, as the opposition tried to execute a high-risk plan to deliver humanitarian aid over the obstinate refusal of President Nicolas Maduro.

Opposition leader Juan Guaido pulled himself onto a semitruck and shook hands with its driver as he and Colombian President Ivan Duque gave a ceremonial send-off to an aid convoy looking to transport nearly 200 metric tons of mostly U.S.-supplied emergency food and medical supplies from the Colombian border city of Cucuta. "Our call to the armed forces couldn't be clearer: put yourself on the right side of history," he said in an appeal to troops constituting Maduro's last-remaining major plank of support in a country ravaged by hyperinflation and widespread shortages.

Amid the aid push, Maduro struck back, breaking diplomatic relations with Colombia, whose government he accuses of serving as a staging ground for a U.S.-led effort to oust him from power. "My patience has run out," Maduro said, speaking at a rally of red-shirted supporters in Caracas and giving Colombian diplomats 24 hours to leave the country.

The opposition is calling on masses of Venezuelans to form a "humanitarian avalanche" to escort the trucks across several border bridges. But clashes started at dawn in the Venezuelan border town of Urena, when residents began removing yellow metal barricades and barbed wire blocking the Francisco de Paula Santander bridge. Venezuela's National Guard responded forcefully, firing tear gas and buckshot on the protesters who demanded that the aid pass through. Some of the protesters were masked youth who threw rocks and later commandeered a city bus and set it afire. At least two dozen people were injured in the disturbances, according to local health officials in Urena.

Related: Voting Company Finds Manipulation in Venezuela Election
Venezuela Agents Arrest Opposition Leaders in Midnight Raids
U.S. Bans Venezuela's Cryptocurrency
Venezuela Blocks Access to the Tor Network


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  • (Score: 4, Touché) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday February 24 2019, @12:30PM (10 children)

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Sunday February 24 2019, @12:30PM (#805911) Homepage Journal

    Right, because donating food to people who are starving to death is totally the same as blowing their shit up.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by Thexalon on Sunday February 24 2019, @01:43PM (1 child)

    by Thexalon (636) on Sunday February 24 2019, @01:43PM (#805925)

    It is if you were involved in arranging for them to starve to death, which there's substantial reason to think the US is involved in doing.

    --
    The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
    • (Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 24 2019, @02:59PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 24 2019, @02:59PM (#805937)

      It is if you were involved in arranging for them to starve to death, which there's substantial reason to think the US is involved in doing.

      Ridiculous. Sanctions were a response to shitty behavior, expect more. [businesstimes.com.sg]

      3.5 Million refugees is the reality. [wikipedia.org]

  • (Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 24 2019, @01:44PM (7 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 24 2019, @01:44PM (#805926)

    Wow. You can really selectively ignore the US's recently enacted sanctions? What about its comments about recognizing someone other than the elected president as the leader of the country? And don't forget Trump's threats of possible military intervention. But you only see "donating food"?

    Here's a tip: the US government does nothing out of the goodness of its heart. Venezuela has the most oil reserves in the world and the US would love for them to drop out of OPEC and/or start producing a few million more barrels of oil a day.

    • (Score: 2, Troll) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday February 24 2019, @03:25PM (5 children)

      by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Sunday February 24 2019, @03:25PM (#805942) Homepage Journal

      US sanctions mean not a fuck in this case; they're entirely symbolic. Welcome to 2019 on Earth, trade is global and if one country doesn't want to trade with you, plenty of others are happy to. Especially if what you're trading is oil. OPEC are the ones who tanked shit for Venezuela by driving oil prices down. You put all your eggs in the oil basket, you better have a plan for when OPEC says "Oh? Is that so...".

      --
      My rights don't end where your fear begins.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 24 2019, @04:28PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 24 2019, @04:28PM (#805960)

        food aid can totally be symbolic and good propaganda as well

      • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 24 2019, @07:24PM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 24 2019, @07:24PM (#806009)

        So, you're ignoring sanctions because you don't think they mean anything (they certainly mean something to Venezuela). What about recognizing a self appointed leader? And what about the threats of military intervention? Are those "symbolic" too?

        The current administration wants to punish a country whose people look like the people they are trying to punish at the Southern US border.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 25 2019, @01:30AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 25 2019, @01:30AM (#806126)

          What are you talking about? Venezuela is selling debt to Russia and China. Did Trump collude with Russia in the election but is now taking a stand against Russia owning Venezuela's oil? Is Trumps America worse than a country that puts muslims in concentration camps? You people are fucking retarded!

        • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday February 25 2019, @02:02AM

          by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Monday February 25 2019, @02:02AM (#806137) Homepage Journal

          I'm ignoring sanctions because they really, truly aren't hurting them. What's hurting them is basing the socialist utopia on oil revenue and OPEC tanking oil prices.

          --
          My rights don't end where your fear begins.
      • (Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 24 2019, @11:17PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 24 2019, @11:17PM (#806073)

        eesh, I guess this isn't overly much crazier than other things you've said but it is up there

    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Monday February 25 2019, @01:14AM

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday February 25 2019, @01:14AM (#806117) Journal

      You can really selectively ignore the US's recently enacted sanctions?

      I disagree with TMB. But these sanctions hurt in the first place because Venezuela is a shitty country at present. A lot of the sanctions wouldn't be effective, if Venezuela could produce the basic infrastructure and fixed assets they need to run their economy.