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AID SHIPMENTS CROSS VENEZUELAN BORDER AS MADURO’S SOLDIERS ABANDON THEIR POSTS
The first shipment of humanitarian aid crossed the border from Brazil to Venezuela Saturday, Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido said, but getting aid to the people of Venezuela continues to be beyond difficult.
“This is a great accomplishment, Venezuela!” Guaido wrote on Twitter Saturday.
Guaido, the 35-year-old president of Venezuela’s National Assembly, declared himself the country’s interim leader in January as conditions deteriorated under socialist dictator Nicolas Maduro.
Guaido’s supporters are trying to bring aid shipments from Colombia and Brazil into Venezuela, but Maduro’s troops are blocking trucks both coming and going along parts of the border. Video footage from Friday showed Venezuelan soldiers erecting barricades and brawling with Guaido’s supporters to keep trucks from exiting the country to collect aid.
Meanwhile, some soldiers posted on the Venezuelan border defected from Maduro’s control. A social media video appears to show four soldiers denouncing Maduro and supporting Guaido, who promised them “amnesty,” reported BBC.
Guaido was in Colombia Saturday seeing off shipments of aid to Venezuela with Colombian president Ivan Duque, reported CBS News. Thousands of volunteers will help get the aid into Venezuela, he said according to BBC.