Venezuela shuts border with Brazil

Caracas, February 22 

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has ordered the closure of Venezuela’s border with Brazil in an increasingly fraught power struggle with Juan Guaido, the opposition leader spearheading efforts to bring humanitarian aid into the country despite a military blockade.

Guaido set out in a convoy of vehicles to personally pick up US aid being stockpiled on the other side of the Colombian border, defying Maduro’s military to stop him. Recognised as interim President by more than 50 countries, he left the capital Caracas for the Colombian border in a convoy of several vehicles for the 900-km trip.

Embattled Maduro has dismissed Guaido’s humanitarian caravan as a “cheap show” and slammed aid as a precursor for a US military intervention in the oil-rich but crippled Latin American country.

A separate caravan of buses and trucks containing opposition lawmakers had earlier left eastern Caracas bound for the border. “We know that the regime is going to put all obstacles to prevent us from reaching the border, but nothing is stopping us, we are going to continue,” an opposition lawmaker said.

Guaido scored important symbolic boosts on Thursday as 11 Venezuelan diplomats based in the US declared their support for him.  Signaling his growing disquiet, Maduro announced on Thursday that the border with Brazil — which along with Colombia is one of the main potential avenues for aid delivery — would be “completely and absolutely” closed from 8 pm until further notice. 

Maduro also warned that he was considering “a total closure of the border with Colombia” to Venezuela’s west. He has already ordered the military to barricade a major border bridge to prevent supplies from entering the country from Cucuta, Colombia. — AFP

Battle of the bands

• Tension along the Colombia-Venezuela border over the entry of aid to the socialist country will be accompanied by music, as rival concerts kick off on both sides of the boundary
• British billionaire Richard Branson is backing ‘Venezuela Aid Live’ in the Colombian border city of Cucuta, where he and 35 artists hope to raise $100 million for food and medical aid
• Maduro is planning two shows near Cucuta on the Tienditas and Simon Bolivar border bridges that connect Venezuela and Colombia