Boiling in Venezuela for help: repression and desertions at the border

In the city of Ureña, Chavez forces clashed with protesters demanding the entrance of Colombia's aid, while members of the National Guard arrived in Cucuta. Guaidó said that a truck has managed to cross the border

CARACAS.- The crisis in Venezuela had another boiling point. Military repression against volunteers and citizens, and
the desertion of several Venezuelan National Guard soldiers at the Colombian border marked the day of the challenge launched by the opposition to the government

Nicolás Maduro

for the entrance of humanitarian aid.

"Anyone who is not on the side of the people and who prevents the entry of humanitarian aid is a deserter who betrays our people," he cried.

Juan Guaidó,

accompanied by the Colombian president,

Iván Duque,

at the border of Las Tienditas. The opposition leader said that the "peaceful, multilateral and humanitarian" operation to allow humanitarian aid sent by the international community to enter Venezuela had begun at midday, and that an badisted truck had managed to cross the border with Brazil.

The president in charge crossed the bridge of Puerto Santander, an hour from Cucuta, in the afternoon of the previous day. And he raced after a 30-hour odyssey playing cat and mouse on the country's roads. The president of the National Assembly ignored the ban on leaving the country, pronounced by the Supreme Court of Justice. Another small challenge in this historic battle against the revolution.

Yesterday morning, four National Guards abandoned their positions in the Venezuelan zone to cross the border and not to participate in the repression. One of them recessed the tank that led against the official barrier and pbaded on the other side, pistol in hand.

"I had the courage that many of my colleagues did not have, there is a lot of disagreement within the troops, as well as officers, but there is fear, you can not do anything say against the government, they are 30 and we are millions, "he said. Sergeant Linárez.

Freddy Bernal, the government's envoy to "protect" the border state of Tachira, said that
the Venezuelan army that deserted and returned to Colombia sought to create a "false positive" when its tanks clashed with obstacles blocking the Simón Bolívar bridge.

The former police commissioner backed the entire morning Diosdado Cabello, the number two of the revolution, who insisted until the exhaustion they were expecting at any time at the time. military invasion of the United States. However, no one saw navy in the vicinity.

"They were trying to say that the National Guard was attacking Colombia, that's the false positive, that's what Donald Trump had asked for," Bernal concluded.

Guaidó, who yesterday visited an aid collection center in Cucuta, announced that he would grant amnesty to any deserted Venezuelan military from across the Colombian border, closed by Maduro's order. "In my capacity as Commander-in-Chief of the National Armed Forces, given the exceptional circumstances of the Republic, I reject the characterization of traitors in the country, for military personnel crossing the border," he wrote on his Twitter account. .

The National Guard acted informally on the Venezuelan side, even firing tear gas against a procession led by a Catholic father, who blessed the demonstrators with a prayer and holy water.

Nuns and women, with Venezuelan flags, received tear gas in response. The cries of "guard, friend, people are with you", they did not help in the first advances. Many women were drowned by gas, including several nuns. At least one of them was wounded, among them Mujeres de Blanco, who in 2016 managed the feat of forcibly crossing the border bridge despite the military presence.

At that time, the border was also closed by order of Maduro, who had expelled thousands of Colombians from Venezuelan territory a few months earlier. The women bought food and medicine in Cucuta and returned to Venezuela. At the end of this edition, the battle was not over. On the contrary, hundreds of volunteers have tried to overcome the obstacles imposed by the government on the roads. The number of protesters has increased every moment.

MP Luis Florido led the group of parliamentarians from different places. "The National Guard is withdrawing," he said. On the border with Brazil, similar situations have been repeated with other protagonists, the Pemón Indians. The violent military crackdown on indigenous peoples, which ended a woman's life and left 15 injured, inflamed the settlers, who harbaded the army all night, even burned two checkpoints in the area. National Guard.

Meanwhile, Major General retired Clíver Alcalá, one of the most powerful military with Hugo Chavez and a member of the Chavez Dissent against Maduro for several years, burst onto the border scene. He accompanied him to another commander, eager to join the entrance of humanitarian aid.

The Pemons collected 74 bullet casings and eight tear gas bombs after the morning incidents. The natives kept four soldiers hostage, including a general in charge of the operation of yesterday; they even started a popular trial against them: the military deployment was huge yesterday in Caracas and in other cities of the country. This did not prevent the badault of paramilitary Chavist groups against a caravan of deputies and journalists in Vega de Aza, in the state of Táchira.

With long weapons, they took the parliamentarians out of the bus, hit and stole cell phones. They also stole cards and television equipment. Thousands of opponents took several parts of the capital to visit the most important military barracks, including the base of La Carlota.