Venezuela Opposition Defies Maduro With Marches to Homeland

Feb 23 2019, 12:57 PMFeb 23 2019, 2:48 PMFebruary 23 2019, 12:57 PMFebruary 23 2019, 2:48 PM

(Bloomberg) -- Venezuelan security forces skirmished with protesters along the Colombian border in a clash over aid shipments between President Nicolas Maduro’s government and U.S.-backed opponents trying to drive him out of power.

National guard soldiers on Saturday fired volleys of tear gas and plastic shot at supporters of opposition leader Juan Guaido, who were trying to persuade them to defect and permit tons of food and medicine into the country. The protesters set up barricades of burning tires.

The aid initiative is a watershed in Guaido’s campaign to replace Maduro, which began last month. The U.S. says political reforms must follow, while traditional aid groups have shunned the effort as politically tainted.

On Friday, a smaller attempt to deliver aid ended in bloodshed: Venezuelan soldiers killed at least one woman and injured a dozen at the remote southern border with Brazil. Fears ran high that the operation Saturday will end in more, possibly wider, violence.

The flashpoint is a stretch of near-dry riverbed on the Venezuelan frontier crossed by four narrow international bridges over which Guaido plans to start delivering hundreds of tons of humanitarian aid to the near-starving nation within hours. Others will attempt to bring food and medicine from Brazil.

U.S. sanctions on the oil industry, Venezuela’s only real source of hard currency, threaten further suffering in a national wracked by hyperinflation and hunger. The sanctions are part of a two-pronged approach by Guaido and his U.S. backers -- strip Maduro of cash to buy even the scraps of food he’s been handing out to citizens, then ride to the rescue with critical supplies of their own.

U.S. Pressure

The U.S. State Department called on Venezuelan authorities to allow the stores of rice, beans, sugar and salt to enter. It said the supplies in Boa Vista, Brazil, would feed 3,500 people in that region for 10 days and there was additional rice to feed 6,100 for a month.

Humanitarian aid is critical but “will not improve the political and economic conditions that are responsible,” the department said in a statement late Friday. Venezuelan authorities should carry out “the critical economic and political reforms necessary to end the hyperinflation, supply shortages, and corruption at the heart of this crisis.”

Maduro has closed international entries and ordered security forces to bar the supplies, saying they are part of plot devised in Washington. Guaido, whose claim to be interim president is recognized by the U.S. and dozens of other countries, has pleaded with soldiers to stand aside and let the aid through. Until now, they’ve remained loyal to Maduro.

Opposition’s Deluge

Colombian President Ivan Duque said Friday that a “human torrent” will help get the aid across.

On Saturday morning, two armored military vehicles pushed back metal barriers on the Simon Bolivar Bridge between Venezuela and Cucuta, and three Venezuelan national guard members on board deserted shortly after, running to the border in a chaotic scene. One woman pushed against a barrier was wounded and fell to the ground bloodied. The guards were met by members of the opposition, who put their arms around them and shouted, “They’re with us!"

Protesters in the Venezuelan border town of Urena began squaring off with guardsmen early Saturday morning. Men with shirts over their faces doused piles of tires with gasoline and set them alight. Some stormed a school where militiamen were staying, forcing them out -- injuring at least one -- and burning their uniforms.

The soldiers dispersed the crowds with tear gas and plastic buckshot.

Brave Face

In Pacaraima, Brazil, that nation’s Foreign Minister Ernesto Araujo told reporters that two trucks carrying medicine and food will try to cross the border and that the nation’s “legitimate government” -- Guaido’s -- would be responsible for distributing it. “We don’t expect any conflict but the army will be ready should anything happen,” he said.

Guaido said Friday in an interview on CNN that, “There are more than a million volunteers, and we continue to invite more to join.”

Guaido’s supporters say they are determined, even in the face of overwhelming force.

“We don’t know how yet, but one way or another the aid is getting in,” said Katerine Vega, a 31-year-old nurse from the Andean town of Colon who volunteered to cross from Cucuta to help distribute food and medicine.

Guaido’s supporters on Friday rallied at a music festival in Cucuta, organized by British billionaire Sir Richard Branson in fields next to where is aid is being stored. Guaido made a surprise appearance, alongside Duque and Chilean President Sebastian Pinera. Organizers said more than 300,000 people attended, while Maduro’s government mounted a smaller competing event on the Venezuela side.

U.S. President Donald Trump has said all options are open if Venezuela continues to block the supplies.

The confrontations cap a monthlong run of protests and sanctions aimed at unseating Maduro, 56, the hand-picked heir of the late President Hugo Chavez. After Guaido invoked Venezuela’s charter on Jan. 23 to declare himself head of state, the U.S. urged other nations to recognize the 35-year-old as president.