Venezuelan “National Guard general Commander Colonel Montoya suppressed the Indigenous people and he did it by firing on them, with arms, with bullets. Unfortunately, one of those bullets, hit a woman who died in her home in front of her son,” Amerigo de Gracia, LCR national assembly representative, told RFI.

Zoraida Garcia Rodriguez, an empanada seller and indigenous activist was one of the people killed. The 15 wounded were reportedly taken to hospital.

The deadly confrontation was over an emergency food and medicine delivery organized by the opposition that President Nicolas Maduro says is unnecessary and has tried to prevent. Opposition leader Juan Guaido had organised humanitarian aid from Brazil, Colombia and Curacao.

Maduro ordered the border with Brazil at Roraima closed on Thursday.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for violence to be avoided in Venezuela, said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric in New York.

“Any loss of life is regrettable,” said Dujarric. “Looking ahead for tomorrow the secretary-general strongly appeals for violence to be avoided,” he added.

Venezuela is in the midst of a political and economic crisis as food and medicine shortages have pushed people to flee to neighbouring countries.</s>At least four civilians were killed Saturday as Venezuelan security forces clashed with demonstrators at the border with Brazil over deliveries of humanitarian aid. More than 20 members of the Venezuelan military also switched their alliance to the opposition.

Foro Penal [Criminal Forum], a group that tracks violence in Venezuela, reported the four deaths Saturday. It said they took place in Santa Elena de Guairen near the border with Brazil. It said the victims were shot by pro-government militia members.

A spokesman for the group, Alfred Romero, posted a video on Twitter saying more than two dozen other people were wounded in the violence.

Meanwhile, the Colombian migration authority says it has counted 23 Venezuelan uniformed personnel, including 20 soldiers, who have crossed into Colombia declaring their surrender and, as Colombia put it, “fleeing the dictatorship of Nicolas Maduro.”

Venezuelan Army Major Hugo Parra announced his defection Saturday, telling VOA Noticias he recognizes opposition leader Juan Guaido as the legitimate president of Venezuela.

Guaido tweeted his praise of the soldiers’ actions.

“They aren’t deserters,” he said. “They’ve decided to put themselves on the side of the people and the constitution.”

Disputed President Nicolas Madura announced in a speech to his supporters Saturday that he is cutting off diplomatic ties with Colombia. Colombia President Ivan Duque has been making public appearances Saturday with Guaido as they work to transport aid across Venezuelan borders.

Duque said Colombian ambassadors and consuls have 24 hours to leave Venezuela.

Colombian Foreign Minister Carlos Holms Trujillo released a statement in response, saying, “Colombia holds the usurper Maduro responsible for any aggression or violation of the rights of Colombian officials in Venezuela.”

Maduro also said he would defend Venezuela’s independence with his life. He called Guaido a puppet of the White House.

He said if the United States attacks his country, “they will be received by the strength of the Venezuelan armed forces.”

Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted his support for Guaido.

Earlier Saturday, Guaido used Twitter to hail the first shipment of humanitarian aid arriving in Venezuela from its southern neighbor Brazil.

“This is a great achievement, Venezuela!” Guaido said in a tweet Saturday.

However, there were mixed reports about whether the aid actually made it to its destination, or remained stalled at the border.

A U.S. State Department official traveling with the aid convoy told VOA the shipment contained about 200 tons of food and medicine from the U.S. and Brazilian governments. They had been stored at a military base in Bao Vista, Brazil.

In the town of Urena, clashes took place early Saturday between Venezuelan National Guard troops and residents who were clearing a bridge so aid trucks from Columbia could enter the country. The troops fired tear gas and buckshot at the residents, some of whom hurled rocks in return. A city bus was also set on fire.

Local health officials in Urena told the Associated Press that at least two dozen people were injured.

Rights group Amnesty International on Saturday called on Venezuela to stop attacking its citizens, saying such attacks constitute serious human rights violations.

​Despite the nation’s rampant inflation and food shortages, embattled President Nicolas Maduro has rejected offers of aid from other countries, saying his countrymen are not beggars.

But Guaido, who has declared himself interim president, vowed to see that the donated supplies piled into warehouses at Venezuelan border crossings are allowed into the country. Throngs of people camped out overnight to help with the deliveries.

On Friday at the crossing at the Brazilian border, at least two civilians died in a clash with Venezuelan soldiers. Witnesses say the security forces used tear gas and bullets on demonstrators calling for the delivery of aid. The demonstrators reportedly fought back with arrows and rocks.

The White House said in a statement late Friday that the U.S. “strongly condemns the Venezuelan military’s use of force against unarmed civilians and innocent volunteers on Venezuela’s border with Brazil.”The statement also said: “Egregious violation of human rights by Maduro and those who are following his orders will not go unpunished.”

Also Friday, Guaido defied a government ban to leave Venezuela and attended the “Venezuela Live Aid” concert, which was arranged by British billionaire Richard Branson in Colombia to raise funds for the relief campaign.

Guaido claimed at the concert he arrived in Colombia with the help of the Venezuelan military, whose most senior officers have repeatedly declared absolute loyalty to Maduro.

As head of the opposition-led National Assembly, Guaido invoked the constitution to declare himself interim president after saying Maduro’s reelection last year was a sham.

The U.S. was the first to recognize Guaido as president, followed by about 50 other nations.

Maduro has offered to meet with Guaido, but is refusing to step down or call for early elections.

The collapse in global energy prices, corruption and failed socialist policies have left oil-rich Venezuela’s economy in shambles.

More than 3 million people have fled the country’s political and economic crisis since 2015.</s>Opposition lawmakers from the southeastern Venezuelan state of Bolivar on Friday said a woman was killed during a clash between soldiers and members of an indigenous community that backs a plan to deliver international humanitarian aid to the crisis-racked country.

The clash in Bolivar left at least 15 people with gunshot wounds, three of whom were seriously injured, legislators Americo de Grazia and Angel Medina said on Twitter.

In statements to online channel VIVOplay, De Grazia said three people wounded in the clash were taken to a hospital in the town of Santa Elena de Uairen, near the border with Brazil and Guyana.

He said the clashes began on Thursday after leftist President Nicolas Maduro ordered the closure of Venezuela's border with Brazil as part of a bid to block aid shipments.

The dead woman was identified as Zoraida Rodriguez, a seller of empanadas who was in the area where the clash occurred - the community of Kumaracupay. All of those injured were men.

Maduro refuses to accept humanitarian aid that the opposition says will enter the country starting Saturday, saying that the deliveries of basic supplies are a ruse and a prelude to a planned military invasion.

He also blames Venezuela's problems on US-led economic warfare targeting his leftist government.

On Thursday, Maduro ordered the closure of Venezuela's border with Brazil and with the Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao as part of a bid to block the aid deliveries.

He also said he was considering closing Venezuela's border with Colombia to prevent aid stockpiled in Cucuta, Colombia, from crossing the frontier.

But Juan Guaido, the speaker of Venezuela's opposition-led National Assembly and self-proclaimed interim president, later ordered the border with Brazil to remain open.

Guaido - who says Maduro's May 2018 re-election victory in balloting boycotted by the opposition was illegitimate - also said Venezuela would maintain diplomatic relations with the islands off the country's coast.

Separately, a group of around 15 Venezuelan lawmakers traveling in a convoy of buses to that nation's border with Colombia were attacked early Friday morning by large rocks, one of which struck a driver in the head, the National Assembly said.

The legislators were heading to the border to coordinate the delivery of international humanitarian aid from Cucuta, Colombia, to Venezuela, an oil-rich nation that is beset by severe food and medicine shortages and hyperinflation.

"The caravan of lawmakers traveling to the city of San Cristobal Tachira was attacked by two blunt objects near Guanare, (the capital of) Portuguesa state. One of (the objects) seriously injured (a) driver," the legislature, which uploaded a photo of a shattered bus window, said on Twitter.

An opposition lawmaker riding on one of the buses, Mariela Magallanes, told EFE that a driver was struck by a rock and had to be taken to a hospital for treatment.

"We took him to a health center, Araure (a town in Portuguesa), but there were no supplies to treat him, not even for first aid; we had to take him to a private health center," where he received five stitches, she said.

The lawmakers, who left Caracas early Thursday on a trip to the border that typically takes 12 hours, decided to stop overnight for safety reasons and then resumed their trip early Friday.

The caravan, which was initially thought to be transporting Guaido, had earlier been stopped on two occasions by soldiers in the states of Carabobo and Cojedes.

Opposition leaders told EFE Thursday that Guaido was already at the Venezuela-Colombia border and waiting for his legislative colleagues to arrive.</s>Injured demonstrators take cover at the Colombian border

Injured demonstrators take cover at the Colombian border

AT LEAST TWO people have died after an attempt to get humanitarian aid into Venezuela descended into deadly chaos as President Nicolas Maduro’s security forces fired on demonstrators.

The clashes with security forces left more than 300 people wounded at various border crossings.

The country is gripped by a humanitarian crisis that has seen poverty soar during a prolonged recession and hyperinflation.

Despite a blockade by Maduro, opposition leader Juan Guaido had set yesterday as a deadline for the delivery of food and medical aid stockpiled in Colombia and Brazil. Aid is also being held on the Caribbean island of Curacao.

Humanitarian aid has become the centerpiece of the standoff between Maduro and Guaido, the 35-year-old leader of Venezuela’s National Assembly who declared himself interim president exactly one month ago.

Demonstrators throw stones at the international bridge at Cucuta Source: Rafael Hernandez/dpa via PA Images

Since dawn, protesters in the border towns of Urena and San Antonio were held at bay by the Venezuelan National Guard firing tear gas and rubber bullets.

Gunshots could be heard in the streets of Urena during hours of rioting.

Civil defence officials in Colombia said at least 285 people had been injured in clashes at border bridge crossings. Colombia also ordered aid trucks to return from the border after the violence.

Most were Venezuelan nationals who were trying to cross with aid parcels when they were pushed back by Venezuelan forces.

The most serious incident came hundreds of kilometres away, at a crossing point on the southern border with Brazil where the killings took place. A 14-year-old boy was among those killed.

Another 31 people were wounded when troops blocking the entry of aid opened fire on civilians hoping to collect it, according to rights group Foro Penal.

Officers of the Venezuela's Bolivarian National Police take cover behind their shields, from a shower of rocks Source: Fernando Vergara via PA Images

Guaido, who was in Cucuta, Colombia coordinating the aid operation, told reporters:

Maduro’s supporters set on fire two trucks loaded with aid driven through barricades on a border bridge.

Another two trucks carrying aid sent by Brazil to Venezuela returned to a Brazilian city after Venezuelan troops barred them from crossing for several hours.

Demonstrators push a bus that was torched during clashes with the Bolivarian National Guard in Urena, Venezuela Source: AP/PA Images

A number of National Guard troops took advantage of the chaos and abandoned their posts to cross into Colombia.

At least 60 members of the armed forces had deserted the “Maduro dictatorship” by last night, according to Colombia’s immigration service.

Guaido, who has been recognised as interim leader by more than 50 countries, said they would be welcomed and not treated as traitors.

Yesterday, Guaido formally launched a long-planned distribution operation at a warehouse at the Tienditas border bridge in Cucuta.

Guaido had vowed humanitarian aid would enter his country despite the blockade.

Juan Guaido speaking at an event on Wednesday Source: Boris Vergara/dpa via PA Images

Socialist leader Maduro has rejected the aid, which he’s dismissed as a show and pretext for a US invasion.

Angered by Colombia’s support for Guaido, Maduro announced Venezuela was severing diplomatic ties with Bogota, and gave Colombian diplomats 24 hours to leave the country.

He told a rally of his supporters in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas:

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said the US “will take action” as be condemned the violence.

As many as 300,000 Venezuelans are in dire need of food and medicine after years of shortages and malnutrition, according to Guaido, who has accused Maduro of rigging his re-election and is demanding a new vote.</s>Caracas, Feb 21 (EFE).- Venezuela’s National Guard (GNB) on Thursday blocked a convoy of opposition lawmakers from traveling from this capital to the Venezuela-Colombia border, video footage uploaded to social media showed.



The guardsmen forced the legislators to get off of buses, leading to a brief confrontation and pushing and shoving.



The footage showed that tear gas was fired during the incident, which occurred at around 2 pm at the La Cabrera tunnel that links the central states of Aragua and Carabobo.



Juan Guaido, the speaker of Venezuela’s opposition-controlled National Assembly and self-proclaimed acting president of the oil-rich nation, was expected to be leading the delegation that left Caracas Thursday morning for the western border state of Tachira.



The purpose of the trip is to receive international aid that has been stockpiled in the Colombian city of Cucuta.

 Preparations are being made to deliver the aid to the crisis-hit country even though leftist Venezuelan head of state Nicolas Maduro vows not to let it enter.



A member of Guaido’s team said he was traveling along with numerous other opposition lawmakers in the convoy of three buses, although EFE was unable to independently confirm that information.



Late last month, Venezuela’s Attorney General’s Office opened an investigation into Guaido, who has had his bank accounts frozen and also is barred from selling his assets or leaving the country.



That latter restriction could prevent him from joining other opposition leaders who have gathered in Cucuta to coordinate the delivery of aid shipments from the United States.



Venezuela’s opposition, which does not recognize Maduro’s May 2018 re-election victory and his new six-year term in office that began on Jan. 10, has called on the international community to help supply food and other basic goods to a country racked by shortages and hyperinflation.



A portion of that aid is being stockpiled in Cucuta, and opposition lawmakers say they will deliver it to their homeland on Saturday amid a large mobilization of ordinary citizens.



Such a move would be in defiance of Maduro, who has says Venezuela has long been the victim of US-led economic warfare and earlier this month described the aid as a “rotten gift” carrying the “poison of humiliation.”



Separately, the White House said Thursday that US Vice President Mike Pence will visit Colombia on Feb. 25 to “voice the United States’ unwavering support for interim President Juan Guaido and highlight the Venezuelan people’s fight for democracy over dictatorship.”



The US led the way in recognizing Guaido after he declared himself interim president at a rally last month. Several Latin American countries, Canada and the major European powers also regard the senior lawmaker as Venezuela’s legitimate head of state.



While in Bogota, Pence will meet with Colombian President Ivan Duque and deliver remarks at a Lima Group meeting focused on “addressing the tragic humanitarian and security crises unfolding in Venezuela and ongoing US efforts to deliver aid to the country.”



Duque, one of Guaido’s biggest backers, on Thursday received the credentials of the Venezuelan opposition leader’s designated ambassador to Colombia, Humberto Calderon Berti.</s>After accusing Bogota of "lending itself to an aggression against Venezuela", Maduro said Colombian diplomats had been ordered to leave Venezuela within the next 24 hours.

His announcement took place against a backdrop of violent border clashes which saw at least four people killed, hundreds injured and dozens of soldiers switch loyalties to opposition leader and National Assembly President Juan Guaidó, who is backed by the U.S. and a growing international coalition.

Reacting to Maduro's decision, Colombia's Foreign Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo said Colombia did not recognise the "legitimacy" of the Venezuelan leader but would withdraw its diplomatic staff from Caracas for security reasons.

Saturday was a critical day in the ongoing political standoff in Venezuela between Maduro's government and the main opposition leader, Juan Guiadó. Venezuelan troops fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters attempting to collect and transport the humanitarian aid.

Witnesses said masked men in civilian clothes also shot at protesters with live bullets, and three trucks of aid were set on fire by tear gas grenades on the Santander bridge connecting Venezuela to Colombia.

According to the Colombian government, more than 60 Venezuelan soldiers defected and entered Colombia on Saturday. But there were not enough to allow aid to pass the border crossings.

William Camacho, an official of the Special Forces of the Bolivarian National Police, told local news that he would join the side of Juan Guaidó: "I will not go against my people."

Efrén Linares, another Venezuelan police officer who swapped sides, told local media, "Dozens more wanted to do so but were afraid of repercussions for their families."

In addition to violence on both the Colombian and Brazilian borders with Venezuela, a Venezuelan Navy vessel threatened to "open fire" on a ship carrying humanitarian aid that was dispatched and financed by Puerto Rico's government, according to the island's governor.

As violence raged along the borders, Maduro addressed a rally in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, insisting he was “stronger than ever” and calling those trying to ship aid “traitors”.

He denounced the humanitarian aid as a pretext for military intervention.

In Cucutá, a town on the Colombian side of the border, Juan Guaidó announced that he will attend a meeting in Bogotá with the Lima Group, in spite of a travel ban imposed on him by Maduro's government. He will also meet US vice-president Mike Pence.

Guaidó declared on Twitter that the fight would continue despite the aid effort failing to breach government blockades. “Today’s events force me to make a decision: to formally propose to the international community that we must have all options open to secure the freedom of our country.”</s>Cucuta, Colombia, Feb 23 (EFE).- Venezuela’s National Police on Saturday impeded a human cordon that formed on a border crossing to accompany several trucks carrying humanitarian aid from this northeastern Colombia city.



In blocking the aid deliveries, the security forces fired tear gas at hundreds of civilians who had taken up positions on the Simon Bolivar International Bridge in the early-morning hours.



The civilians, who had demanded that the aid be allowed to cross and also called on the police to abandon their posts, responded by throwing rocks at the security forces.



Colombia’s police did not intervene in the conflict and remained positioned at the Migracion Colombia (migration agency) posts set up on that bridge to control the movement of people and goods across the border.



Several members of the National Police who were assigned to that border crossing deserted on Saturday and crossed over to the Colombian side of the frontier.



Several Colombian police escorted their Venezuelan counterparts to the other side amid the applause of Venezuelans gathered in the area.

 Migracion Colombia confirmed that at least 11 members of Venezuela’s National Guard and two police deserted on Saturday amid the attempts to deliver humanitarian aid from Colombia to Venezuela, which has been racked by severe food and medicine shortages and hyperinflation.



“At this time, Migracion Colombia, in Norte de Santander province, is expediting interviews with 10 members of the Venezuelan National Guard and two women with the Bolivarian National Police who arrived in the country fleeing Nicolas Maduro’s dictatorship,” that migration agency said.



One other member of Venezuela’s security forces deserted and crossed the border into the northeastern Colombian province of Arauca, according to the official report.



These isolated instances notwithstanding, the vast majority of Venezuela’s armed forces have remained loyal to leftist President Nicolas Maduro.



Separately, Venezuelan authorities on Saturday blocked the entry of trucks being used to carry humanitarian aid over two other border crossings – the Francisco de Paula Santander and Tienditas bridges.



They fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators on both of those bridges.



The speaker of Venezuela’s opposition-led National Assembly, Juan Guaido, who proclaimed himself interim president last month, traveled to Cucuta on Friday for a massive aid concert organized by British businessman Richard Branson and also to receive the international humanitarian aid stockpiled in Colombia.



He said Saturday that the trucks carrying the aid from Colombia were already in Venezuelan territory but that the leftist government was impeding their advance.



“The usurper regime is blocking (the trucks). They can’t deal with our irreversible decision to live in freedom,” Guaido wrote on Twitter.



The opposition leader said earlier Saturday that humanitarian aid trucks had entered Venezuela via that country’s border with Brazil.



Maduro has ordered both of those borders closed, saying that the humanitarian aid is a Trojan horse for a US-led military intervention.



Venezuela’s opposition, as well as the United States and much of the international community, regards Maduro’s May 2018 re-election victory to be fraudulent.



The US has also imposed severe sanctions on Venezuela’s oil industry in a bid to expedite regime change.



The major European nations – save Italy – also are among the roughly 50 governments that have recognized Guaido.



Several dozen other countries, including Russia, China and India, continue to recognize Maduro as Venezuela’s president.</s>The Venezuelan National Guard (GNB) clashed with citizens in Urena, Venezuela, on the border with Colombia.

Protesters threw projectiles at the armed forces, who replied by firing in their directions.

The armed forces closed a road to control the border and prevent humanitarian aid, which has been stockpiled for days on the Colombian side of the border, to enter Venezuela.

The aid has been sent by Colombia and the US to help Venezuelan citizens, who are suffering from widespread shortages of food and medicine caused by an economic crisis.

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro denies that the country is economically struggling and has refused that aid crosses the border into Venezuela, shutting the country's border with Brazil and blocking the border with Colombia with shipping containers.</s>Edinson Cisneros gasped and wheezed as he tried to talk -- he was one of the protesters struck by rubber buckshot fired by Venezuelan security forces breaking up border demos demanding the entry of emergency aid from Colombia.

The main crossing points on the Colombian border became flashpoints for unrest Saturday as Venezuelan security struggled with twin tasks: keeping Venezuelans from leaving to get aid stockpiled in Colombia, and stopping people crossing the border with aid packages.

Cisneros, 24, was in a large crowd that tried to reach the Francisco de Paula Santander border bridge, the crossing point that links Urena, Venezuela with Cucuta, Colombia.

"They fired tear gas at us," said Cisneros, 24, as he was treated for his wounds in Urena.

With a tube up his nose, sitting on a stretcher, Cisneros showed AFP his battered body: an open wound on his abdomen, and rubber pellet injuries on his chest, an arm and a leg.

"The people couldn't stand it and we lost strength. And when we were trying to catch our breath" the Venezuelan National Guard soldiers "came and they shot at us again," he said.

Cisneros was on the verge of losing consciousness after he was stuck, but saved when other protesters rushed him to a medical center near the bridge.

The violence in Urena escalated through the day. A group of hooded protesters stole some local buses and drove them towards the bridge to use them as battering rams against the military barricades.

Then the youngsters set fire to one of the buses. The blaze spread from the vehicle and damaged a home and electricity cables before firefighters rushed in to douse the flames.

The Venezuelan government of President Nicolas Maduro has closed the border to prevent the entry of the foreign aid, which he claims is part of a US plot to overthrow his leftist regime.

The humanitarian aid effort is being organized by Juan Guaido, the 35-year-old leader of Venezuela's National Assembly who declared himself interim president and is calling for new elections.

Guaido set Saturday as the day he and his supporters would try to get aid by truck or on foot across the border into poverty-stricken Venezuela -- but the effort was met with resistance from security forces loyal to Maduro.

"We were going toward the roadblock (on the bridge) and the National Guard was shooting indiscriminately," said another Urena protester, 28-year-old Luis Polanco.

Three lawmakers attempted to negotiate with the military in the afternoon, but they too were met with tear gas.

"The deputies arrived, they started to walk and (the troops) pushed back with pellets, tear gas, with everything," said Polanco, who was struck on his ankle by a rubber bullet.

The medical center that treated Cisneros and Polanco received around 50 patients on Saturday, mostly struck by rubber pellets, chief medic Soralis Medina told AFP.

That included serious cases, such as one patient with a pellet "directly in the eyeball."

- 'You can't live like this' -

Both Cisneros and Polanco are victims of Venezuela's deep economic crisis, where food, medicine and survival basics hard to find.

With hyperinflation projected to reach a jaw-dropping 10 million percent in 2019, the Venezuelan Bolivar currency is so worthless that Colombian money is used in the border region.

"It's not enough for anything," he complains. And he's one of the lucky ones: the minimum wage in Venezuela works out to just $6 per month.

"You can't live like this," said Polanco, an informal worker and father of two.

"And now that help is arriving they have it over there (in Colombia) and they don't want to let it come in," he lamented.

Two trucks loaded with aid were set on fire Saturday afternoon as they made their way across the bridge from Cucuta. Guaido supporters who were escorting the vehicles blamed Maduro loyalists for the blaze.

One of the Guaido supporters, 29 year-old street vendor Marcos Blanco, was hit just below his right eyebrow by a rubber pellet fired by Venezuelan security.

"It's as if they hit you on the head with a baseball bat," said Blanco, who was holding his shirt to his right eye in an attempt to staunch the bleeding.

There was also unrest on Venezuela's border with Brazil, where at least two were killed, according to one rights group.</s>What term do you want to search? Search with google
Venezuelan people clash with the Venezuelan National Guard on the Venezuela's border with Colombia and Brazil. Three people have died in southern Bolívar State.