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Venezuela troops fire teargas on Colombia border protesters

Self-declared acting president Juan Guaido has vowed humanitarian aid would enter Venezuela despite a blockade - AFP
Self-declared acting president Juan Guaido has vowed humanitarian aid would enter Venezuela despite a blockade - AFP

Venezuelan forces on Saturday hurled tear gas and fired rubber to break up a crowd demanding to cross the Urena border bridge to Colombia.

"We want to work!" people chanted as they faced Venezuelan National Guard riot police blocking the crossing, one of several ordered closed by President Nicolas Maduro late Friday.

Supporters of opposition leader Juan Guaido in Colombia are planning to cross the border carrying emergency supplies into Venezuela.

While the need for basic food and medicines is real, the effort is also meant to embarrass military officers who continue to support Maduro's increasingly isolated government.

Juan Guaido, recognized by most Western nations as the country's legitimate head of state, defied court orders not to leave Venezuela by arriving on Friday in the Colombian border city of Cucuta, where aid from the U.S. and Colombian governments is stockpiled in warehouses.

Self-declared acting president Juan Guaido has vowed humanitarian aid would enter Venezuela despite a blockade - Credit: AFP
Self-declared acting president Juan Guaido has vowed humanitarian aid would enter Venezuela despite a blockade Credit: AFP

Guaido, 35, head of the opposition-run Congress, has provided few details on the transport plan. Trucks are expected to be driven by Venezuelan volunteers and some opposition figures have suggested forming human chains.

"Today the obstacles that the dictatorship created will tomorrow be rivers of unity, of peace," Guaido said in a news conference on Friday in Cucuta, where he was received by Colombian President Ivan Duque.

Venezuelan soldiers may bar the way.

Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said in a tweet late on Friday that Venezuela's government shut the Tachira border that connects it with Cucuta temporarily "due to a series of illegal threats" by Colombia.

Venezuelan demonstrators clash with security forces in Urena, Venezuela, - Credit: Reuters
Venezuelan demonstrators clash with security forces in Urena, Venezuela, Credit: Reuters

A group of frustrated Venezuelans who were seeking to cross into Colombia on Saturday to work morning threw rocks and bottles at National Guard troops, who responded with tear gas.

"We were all going to work, we want to work, the people attempted to force through," said Viviana Meza, 29, who works in a Cucuta restaurant.

At least four National Guard officers on Saturday at the border disavowed Maduro's government and requested assistance from the Colombian government, Colombia's migration agency said on Saturday.

Videos on social media showed crowds first jeering and then cheering the men as they were escorted away by Colombian police.

Venezuelans clash with national guards in the border town of Urena after Maduro´s government ordered to temporary close down the border with Colombia - Credit: AFP
Venezuelans clash with national guards in the border town of Urena after Maduro´s government ordered to temporary close down the border with Colombia Credit: AFP

Maduro blames the country's dire situation on U.S. sanctions that have blocked the country from obtaining financing and have hobbled the OPEC nation's oil industry. Rodriguez says the aid is poisoned.

Concerns about the potential for violence flared on Friday when the Venezuelan army opened fire in an village near the Brazilian border after indigenous leaders attempted to prevent them from advancing, killing a woman and her husband.

"I don't plan to leave my house over the weekend, especially after what happened near Brazil," said Paulina Sanchez, a 68-year-old grandmother who lives just 300 meters (yards) from the Francisco de Paula Santander bridge, one of the crossings through which aid may pass. "This could turn into a powder keg."

Nearly 200,000 people attended a benefit concert in Cucuta on Friday featuring Latin pop stars, including Luis Fonsi of "Despacito" fame, many of whom called on Maduro to step down.

A rival concert held by the ruling Socialist Party on the Venezuelan side was sparsely attended.

Guaido in January invoked articles of the constitution to assume interim presidency and denounced Maduro as a usurper, arguing his 2018 re-election was illegitimate.