President Nicolas Maduro said in a televised speech Friday that "As part of measures to restore order, peace, tranquility and justice ... I have decided to declare a state of emergency" in several municipalities of eastern Tachira state. He said the border would remain closed until a sense of normalcy can be returned to the affected area.
The president closed the border Wednesday following the confrontation between the soldiers and the smugglers.
Colombia's foreign minister said it is working with Venezuela to track down the attackers.
Colombia and Venezuela share a 2,100-kilometer porous border. The closed-off area has a long history of violence stemming from Colombia's long-running insurgency, drug trafficking, and the smuggling of cheap goods from Venezuela.
[voanews.com]
22/8/15
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Venezuela border closing hurts innocent people: Colombian president...
ReplyDeleteVenezuela's closure of two border crossings with Colombia hurts innocent people, Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos said on Saturday, adding that he hoped to speak to his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro to find a solution.
Maduro closed the crossings on Wednesday after a shootout between smugglers and troops left three soldiers wounded. He declared a 60-day state of emergency in five border municipalities on Friday.
"We're willing to pursue the criminals to find those responsible for the attack," Santos told journalists on the sidelines of meetings with regional officials.
"I'll see if I can speak to President Maduro, to see if we can solve this situation as quickly as possible because innocent people are the ones suffering."
The 2,219-kilometer (1,379 mile) border shared by the two countries is frequently traversed by smugglers and illegal armed groups............reuters.com
22/8/15
Colombians flee Venezuela after mass deportations...
ReplyDeleteHundreds of Colombians fled Venezuela Tuesday, opting to leave the country with their belongings rather than be deported empty-handed like more than 1,000 people sent home in an escalating border crisis.
Some carted refrigerators or mattresses on their backs as they made the trek from the Venezuelan state of Tachira back to their home country, wading through the waist-deep water of the river that forms the border.
“We left at 3:00 am in the clothes we were wearing. We wanted to come back before they deported us,” said Rosana Morena, a 25-year-old Colombian who left with her two children.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro ordered the border between Tachira and the Colombian department of Norte de Santander closed last week in response to an attack by unidentified assailants on a military patrol, which wounded a civilian and three soldiers on an anti-smuggling operation.
He initially ordered the closure for 72 hours, but later extended it indefinitely, accusing the neighboring country of waging “an attack on Venezuela’s economy.”
That was a reference to the rampant smuggling of heavily subsidized food and other goods out of Venezuela.
Venezuela has long used its oil wealth to fund price controls that keep goods like rice and toilet paper up to 10 times cheaper than in Colombia..............http://www.france24.com/en/20150826-colombia-venezuela-border-crisis-mass-deportations
26/8/15