Competing concerts take place along Venezuela Colombia border

World Today

On the Venezuela-Colombia border rival music events.

President Maduro is supporting a ‘Hands-off Venezuela Festival’ on one side.

Opposition leader Juan Guaido attended an aid concert on the Colombia side.

That was in defiance of a ban on leaving Venezuela.

He was greeted by Colombia’s president, Ivan Duque as well as the leaders of Chile and Paraguay.

As CGTN’s Toby Muse reports, the concert had a well-known organizer.

The Venezuela aid live concert was held in the Colombian city of Cucuta across the border from Venezuela.

It was organized by British billionaire Richard Branson and hosted some of Latin America’s biggest stars.

The concert aimed to raise $100 million for food and medicine aid in Venezuela where it is desperately needed.

“The concert is all about much needed aid to Venezuela millions who have been suffering for so long,” Branson said.

He said this was the fastest ever organized concert for its size, all coming together in less than three weeks.

Branson who owns a private company engaging in space flight, said he had missed a rocket launching to come to the concert on the border.

Organized said they expected 100,000 to attend. Latin America mega stars Alejandro Sanz and Maluma performed for the crowd who danced in the baking tropical heat.

The Venezuelan concert was called “Hands Off Venezuela.” It was to protest what it called a U.S. sponsored coup against the government of Nicolas Maduro.

The Venezuelan president said that his government would oversee the handover of $20,000 aid packages to Colombia’s poor and needy.


Two killed as Venezuelan troops open fire on opposition supporters

Political turmoil turned into violence in Venezuela. Troops opened fire on opposition supporters, near the border with Brazil, as they blocked the way to a checkpoint.

At least two people were killed. CGTN’s Stephen Gibbs reported from Caracas with more on the burst of conflict.


Paula Garcia Tufro discusses the crisis in Venezuela

Humanitarian aid is front-and-center in Venezuela’s political crisis. To learn more about the nature of that aid, how it’s been politicized and the likeliness of a peaceful solution, CGTN’s Asieh Namdar spoke with Paula Garcia Tufro. She’s the deputy director at the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center.