The border, a door that does not give up today | Chronicle of …

From Táchira

Cameras point to the border between Venezuela and Colombia. The badembled badembly presents it as a door about to give way. Everything seems ready, it would miss the day that, after presidents' declarations, news headlines, would be about to happen. The story of the imminence is central since Juan Guaidó has proclaimed president: imminent fall of Nicolás Maduro, impending transition government and resolution of all the problems of Venezuela.

The images arriving at the border are others. Especially in the point that was built as critical area: the municipalities of Simón Bolívar and Ureña, in the state of Táchira, in front of the city of Cúcuta, Colombia. We must see a territory shocked and militarized on the Venezuelan side and transformed into a mbadive collection of humanitarian aid on the Colombian side. The reality is different, a superposition of normality of one of the most complex borders of the continent and the climate of a scenario under construction.

To understand the dynamics of borders, we must cross certain variables. In the first place, the historical conformation of this territory as a binational commercial zone, indicated in the purchase and sale instructions according to the relations between the Venezuelan bolivar and the Colombian peso. Second, the start-up since 2013 – with earlier signs – of contraband extraction as part of a plan to drain the Venezuelan economy. Third, the presence of key actors in charge of smuggling operations, such as paramilitary groups. Fourth, the three previous points of the current economic situation. The variables intersect and react.

In this geographical area, the cameras focus on two level crossings, the Las Tienditas bridge and the Simón Bolívar bridge. The first was the coverage of the newspapers by the continentalists placed on the Venezuelan side, presented as a closing of the pbad. This bridge has never been opened. Its construction was a Venezuelan initiative, concretized by Colombian policy to boost the illegal smuggling of gasoline instead of imposing a price system agreed between the two countries at border service stations.

The question of gasoline is the key to understanding the border: a liter on the Colombian side costs about 60 cents, while on the Venezuelan side, full fuel does not cost a dollar. This smuggled gasoline can supply depleted Colombian border areas, Colombian society Ecopetrol to allocate fuel to other sites, paramilitaries to store millions and those who manage cocaine control – paramilitary and cartels – in order to have cheap fuel for processing. The Colombian government has legally allowed smuggling of gasoline.

The second target bridge is Simón Bolívar. Open from 6 am to 9 pm at the pedestrian crossing, and from 9:12 pm to the pbadage of gandolas (trucks). Every day, more than 30,000 people cross it, of which about 2,000 stamp their pbadports, that is, the others come and go the same day. It has a cinematic advantage: it is narrow, so that a long line of people can be generated by only slowing down a few minutes. This is what the Colombian authorities do when the media campaign requires photographs showing the mbad. Otherwise, the transit of people is important and fluid.

The coming and going is commercial and family. On the Colombian side, some products are obtained at cheaper prices than in Venezuela, which is why many people come together to buy them, to consume them personally or to sell them more expensive on the Venezuelan side. Other products, regulated or subsidized, are cheaper on the Venezuelan side, so the direction is the opposite. This is a saving of thousands of people coming from the border, from other states of the country – like the inhabitants of Barinas or Barquisimeto – prolonged by the economic difficulties due to the combination of the financial blockade, the Attack of money, of difficulty. to stop hyperinflation, among other things.

The humanitarian story, the help, the possible interventions are under construction every day. They have made the border the place where the big communication agencies, the spokespersons of various governments and international organizations are. The goal is to show it as the critical point where the door will give way.

Everyone knows, for example, that the Las Tienditas Bridge was never opened, even though they claim that the Venezuelan government blocked it in the face of this situation. In the course proposed by Freddy Bernal, appointed protector of the Táchira state by Maduro – the governor belongs to Acción Democrática, representatives of the opposition – Colombian media and international agencies were present. It does not matter that they know the truth about the bridge, they argue otherwise, the ongoing campaign to isolate Venezuela requires the construction of a matrix in which agencies, government officials, agencies, presidents, social network engineers, among others, are articulated.

In this context, humanitarian aid has been designed as a ram to break the door. With several peculiarities: first, what has happened so far is insignificant, two gandolas, when 40 are distributed in a single day of food distribution in Táchira through local supply and production committees. Secondly, it does not matter what the real impact this might have, but the construction of the scenario, which will consist of showing help from one side or the other to the Venezuelan population who ask for it – for which the right will mobilize his forces – and on the half of the government closes the way. It is this image that they will apparently seek to build.

In this table, hypotheses can be generated. One of them is that it is the territory where the badault strategy can build the detonating element, the operation mounted to justify new attacks of greater power. They must increase the impact on public opinion, get the agreement of the US Senate to leave in writing the military intervention, create internal turmoil.

The scenario seems too normal for the goals they set for themselves. This is due to the fact that some maneuvers did not work for them, such as the arrest of García Palomo, who was to conduct a series of military actions in Caracas. This week could be the one chosen to activate the border scenario, this would be the point where the international front would join the national to find a break. At the moment the surface remains calm.