With border blocked, desperate Venezuelans ask how U.S. aid will arrive

February 7, 2019  10H:49  GMT/ZULU

by Renee Celeste and Biodun Iginla, BBC News and Reuters, URENA, Venezuela/CUCUTA, Colombia

URENA, Venezuela/CUCUTA, Colombia - Desperate Venezuelans asked on Wednesday how they would gain access to U.S. food and medicine aid due to arrive via the Colombia border after President Nicolas Maduro’s government blocked the frontier crossing to any humanitarian shipments.

Despite widespread hunger and shortages of staple goods in Venezuela, Maduro vowed to turn back U.S. aid after President Donald Trump’s administration last month recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as the rightful interim ruler of the South American nation.

Venezuelan security forces blocked the three-lane border crossing from the Colombian town of Cucuta on Tuesday using two shipping containers and a fuel tanker. Armed Venezuelan soldiers stood guard at the customs building, pledging to turn back any attempt to cross the border.

SPONSORED

The Cucuta crossing was quiet on Wednesday but Colombian migration officials pulled back a little from the border line, citing the rising tensions with Venezuela.

In the Venezuelan border town of Urena, residents signed up to unofficial waiting lists for aid.

“We’re desperate. Our money is not worth anything. Maduro may not like the help, but he should think about people who do not have anything to eat,” said Livia Vargas, 40. “I signed up on a list to receive aid but then they told us that it would not work like that.”

A child has a snack, as part of a health program of the NGO "Comparte por una vida" (Share for a life), at La Frontera school in Cucuta, Colombia February 5, 2019. Picture taken February 5, 2019. REUTERS/Marco Bello

The largest city along the frontier, Cucuta has been a transit route for many of the 3 million Venezuelans who have fled in recent years. Thousands of people cross four pedestrian bridges that connect the city with Venezuela on daily entry passes to shop for food.

International pressure is growing on Maduro to step down after major European Union nations this week joined the United States, Canada and a group of Latin American countries in recognizing Guaido as Venezuela’s legitimate leader following Maduro’s re-election last year in a vote critics called a sham.

Guaido, the head of Venezuela’s National Assembly, has urged the military to turn on Maduro and support a transition to democracy.

U.S. officials told us at Reuters that aid was on its way this week.

Colombian and U.S. authorities have remained silent on how they plan to distribute the aid without Maduro’s approval.

Shipments are also due to come from Venezuelan companies abroad, Colombia, Canada and Germany.

Colombian Foreign Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo said on Wednesday airplanes had arrived in Colombia and paperwork was being handled to send the aid to Cucuta. It was not clear where they arrived or what was on board.

Slideshow (17 Images)

‘PEOPLE NEED HELP’

Peering through cracks in a sheet metal fence to an area where U.S. humanitarian aid is due to be stockpiled in Cucuta, Venezuelan Yesica Leonett pleaded for information on how her four children can benefit from the donations.

“People need help. My children eat boiled banana skins, shredded like meat,” said Leonett, 31, who fled Venezuela eight months ago. “What a joy to get help to my children. An even greater joy would be to get rid of Maduro.”

Police who provide security on the Colombian side of the bridge told us at Reuters that there has been a huge number of Venezuelans asking when and where the aid will be delivered.

“There’s nothing to tell them because we don’t have any information. Sometimes they despair but we can’t do anything, it’s so sad,” said a patrolman located a few yards (meters) from the border.

Vietnam-style reforms may work for North Korea

Colombia has received more than 1.1 million Venezuelans, with about 3,000 entering each day. Government estimates reach 4 million by 2021 if the crisis in Venezuela is not resolved.

“I’d like to believe this is the beginning of a new Venezuela, but I’ve seen so many attempts by the opposition fail, I prefer not to have false hopes,” Venezuelan Carmen Perez, 67, said in a trembling voice as she bought eggs from the back of a truck.

After the election, Venezuela emigrees still streaming across border

May 19, 2019  23H:13  GMT/UTC/ZULU TIME

by Renee Celeste and Biodun Iginla, BBC News and Reuters, SAN ANTONIO, Venezuela

SAN ANTONIO, Venezuela - Crouched on a sidewalk near Venezuela’s border with Colombia, construction worker Deiver Guarate said Sunday’s presidential election has already been decided in favor of President Nicolas Maduro, and he did not plan to stay around to hear the results.

A Venezuelan National Guard keeps watch next to the Simon Bolivar international bridge in San Antonio del Tachira, Venezuela May 16, 2018. Picture taken May 16, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Eduardo Ramirez

Unable to cover even the most basic of expenses amid hyperinflation, Guarate was emigrating to Colombia and had to spend the night on the street as he waited for overwhelmed Venezuelan migration authorities to stamp his passport.

“People aren’t voting anymore because they know that it’s rigged. If we had any hope that this would change, we wouldn’t be migrating,” said Guarate, 35, huddled beside suitcases on a street were several hundred people have been sleeping this week.

“The situation in Venezuela is critical,” said Guarate, whose grandmother died last year of kidney problems because the family was unable to obtain medicine due to drug shortages.

Venezuela’s opposition has called on supporters to sit out Sunday’s vote due to concerns of fraud but tens of thousand of migrants are so skeptical of the election that they prefer to leave.

They are flocking to border towns like San Antonio, where they anxiously push through streets crowded with informal vendors under sweltering sun to escape a country where a monthly minimum wage can at best buy a few pounds of rice.

Maduro challenger Henri Falcon, who is breaking the boycott to face his rival, insists that a massive turnout by discontented Venezuelans would bring about change.

Many among the opposition, however, believe Falcon is legitimizing a rigged process, which governments around the world including the United States and Latin American neighbors have condemned.

People carry their luggage as they walk outside the customs building in San Antonio del Tachira, Venezuela May 16, 2018. Picture taken May 16, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Eduardo Ramirez

Maduro, who insists the election is free and fair, has warned migrants they would face difficult circumstances abroad and recently said some are now “cleaning toilets.”

He has said that Venezuela’s situation has been caused by an “economic war” led by U.S.-backed adversaries.

The Information Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

‘WE KNOW WHAT’S COMING’

In April, Maduro launched a program called “Return to the Fatherland” meant to raise money for Venezuelans who sold their possessions to emigrate, then wanted to return.

In San Antonio, migrants carrying tatty bags with their belongings did not believe the government would help them or that the vote represented an opportunity for change.

“The situation is just too difficult. Money doesn’t buy anything,” said Alejandro Lugo, 25, a bodyguard who planned to settle in Colombian capital Bogota.

“On Sunday there are elections. We all know what’s coming. They know the results already,” Lugo said.

The border is closed over the weekend as a security measure during the election, so migrants would have to wait until Monday to cross or cut through dozens of illegal paths.

The United Nations has estimated that 1 million Venezuelans left the country between 2015 and 2017.

Slideshow (12 Images)

Some 13,000 per day leave in search of a new life from the Venezuelan state of Tachira, the most heavily trafficked border crossing state, according to Venezuelan military sources working in the area who asked not to be identified.

Another 50,000 leave and return the same day or shortly after, the sources said.

Emigrees who carry on get their passports stamped, then walk across the Simon Bolivar bridge with suitcases and backpacks to reach Colombia or continue on by bus toward Ecuador or Peru.

The exodus of the last year has put a strain on neighboring Latin American countries, where Venezuelans are routinely seen sleeping on the streets.

Maduro halted vehicle traffic over the bridge three years ago. Sweaty pedestrians now line up in the heat to get through Colombia’s border check point.

Some cross to buy goods that have run short in Venezuela such as diapers or flour, while others smuggle goods to the Colombian border city of Cucuta, one of the few remaining ways to consistently make a living.

“Here your money won’t buy anything, no matter how much you make,” said Wilma Morales, 50, a lawyer, waiting to cross the border on her way to Peru. “For me there are no elections. I’m not going to be legitimizing a dictatorship.”

See graphics on upcoming elections in Latin America tmsnrt.rs/2wSwu9k and in Venezuela tmsnrt.rs/2IWH6ZD