Posted on 08/23/2015 12:08:35 PM PDT by grundle
At least 1,500 extra Venezuelan troops are being sent to the border
The Venezuelan president has declared a state of emergency in a border region near Colombia following an attack by smugglers in which three soldiers and a civilian were injured.
Nicolas Maduro said there would be 60 days of martial law in five municipalities in the state of Tachira.
He also said the closure of the border, announced on Thursday, would be extended until further notice.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has criticised the move.
Mr Santos said ordinary people on both sides of the border, including children, would suffer the most.
"If we co-operate, the only ones to lose are the criminals, but if the border is closed, there is no co-ordination and the only ones to gain are the criminals," said Mr Santos.
Petrol and food smugglers have increasingly clashed with Venezuelan officers.
The BBC's Daniel Pardo in Venezuela reports that Mr Maduro said Colombian paramilitary groups regularly travel to Venezuela, generating chaos and shortages in order to destabilise the revolution.
Mr Maduro said an extra 1,500 soldiers had arrived to reinforce the area.
"This decree provides ample power to civil and military authorities to restore peace," he said in a broadcast on state television.
On Wednesday, three Venezuelan army officers and a civilian were injured in riots with Colombian smugglers.
Venezuela closed its border with Colombia for the first time last year.
Tensions run high along the porous 2,200-kilometre (1,370-mile) border.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
Of course the real reason is the price controls. If there were no government price controls, there would be no "smuggling."
This is what Hugo Chavez referred to as "21st century socialism." And now that Chavez is dead, his hand picked successor Marudo is continuing Chavez's policies.
Also see: Venezuelan military tells customers not to take pictures of empty shelves in supermarkets
The smuggling will change from food into the country to people going out of the country.Will they shoot like the East Germans did at the Berlin wall?
Just as an FYI, http://www.bbc.co.uk now redirects to http://www.bbc.com. I suppose they decided to simplify things.
ahhh yes... the concentrated blessings of socialism
Obama looking on enviously.
So it is the BBC. Thank you for the correction.
I’m sure Jimmy Carter will have something to say soon.
Poor guy probably misses Chavez so much.
They’ll be in the same place soon enough.
Stalin posted Soviet army troops as guards on the Ukrainian border during the Holodomor of the 1930s for much the same reason.
Pay attention America. This is what the socialists / progresives want us to become. This is the cruel reality of their Utopian dreams.
Oh, yes, "Each one kill one." Is that noise I hear liberal sphincters tightening?
Most likely. I bet toilet paper, soap and diapers are hot items also.
They’ve pretty much said they want this for years.
They have on occasion admitted they want to “ration resources”.
How long before Maduro starts a war with a neighbor to distract the citizenry from domestic issues?
I give it 2-4 months.
CC
Income equality (Everyone equally has nothing) and starvation for all (Except for the Politicians lecturing their people to live with less while they live oppulent lives).
The joys of Socialism are on display in Venezuela.
Smugglers are actually helping their economy. Smugglers only exist because of their own governments idiotic laws
Smugglers invading with goods and services that people desperately need? What’s this world coming to?
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