Venezuelans demand aid at Brazil border

World Today

Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro breaks diplomatic relations with neighboring ColombiaA demonstrator gets caught in a strand of barbed wire during clashes with the Bolivarian National Guard in Urena, Venezuela, near the border with Colombia, Saturday, Feb. 23, 2019. Venezuela’s National Guard fired tear gas on residents clearing a barricaded border bridge between Venezuela and Colombia on Saturday. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Tensions are running high in the Brazilian border city of Pacaraima.

Thousands remained at the city’s international border crossing with Venezuela to demand the entry of food and medicine as dusk fell.

An emergency doctor says two protesters have been killed and another 18 have been injured during clashes between soldiers and residents of the southeastern Venezuelan town of Santa Elena de Uairen, near the border with Brazil.

CGTN’s Stephen Gibbs reports.

Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro announced he’s breaking all diplomatic ties with neighboring Colombia amid deepening political turmoil.

Maduro spoke Saturday as opposition leader Juan Guaido launched an effort to bring international humanitarian aid into Venezuela from across the border in Cucuta, Colombia.

Venezuela’s National Guard has fired tear gas on residents clearing a barricaded border bridge between Venezuela and Colombia to let humanitarian aid pass through.

Opposition leader Juan Guaido has sent off a humanitarian aid convoy of trucks from Colombia toward the border of Venezuela at a pivotal moment in a showdown with President Nicolas Maduro.

Two trucks carrying humanitarian aid from Brazil are stuck at the Venezuela border, contradicting earlier reports by opposition leaders that they had managed to break through a police blockade and enter the country.

Venezuelans are rushing to rescue boxes of emergency food and medicine from burning trucks stalled on a bridge to Colombia.

An army major says he’s rejecting President Nicolas Maduro and throwing his loyalty behind the opposition’s effort to bring aid into Venezuela.

Maj. Hugo Parra Martinez was the fifth member of the armed forces to abandon Maduro’s socialist government on Saturday. A lieutenant and three sergeants of the National Guard surrendered earlier to officials in Colombia with raised hands.

Story by The Associated Press


Violence breaks at the Brazil-Venezuela border

A tense standoff finally boiled over into violence at the border between Brazil and Venezuela. CGTN’s Paula Cabral reports from Pacaraima, Brazil.


Venezuelan opposition clashes with troops at border with Colombia

CGTN’s Toby Muse reports from Cucuta, Colombia, as the Venezuelan opposition clashes with troops amid a humanitarian aid standoff.


John Kirk discusses escalating tensions at the Venezuelan border

CGTN’s Frances Kuo spoke to John Kirk for more insight on tensions at the border in Venezuela. Kirk is a Professor of Latin American Studies at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada.