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Cucuta, Colombia – Rival concerts have formed the backdrop for the confrontation between Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and the opposition president and so-called acting president, Juan Guaido, while the opposition was preparing to bring help through the Venezuelan border – a gesture that Maduro has pledged to block.
Billionaire Richard Branson staged a concert entitled "Venezuelan Aid Live" on The Tienditas International Bridge, which connects Venezuela and Colombia, while the Maudro government launched a three-day festival across the border.
Branson said he hoped to raise more than $ 100 million to provide food and medicine to Venezuelans.
"I think if we can persuade the soldiers to open the bridge, it's the ideal result of this concert," Branson told the Reuters news agency before Friday's concert.
"This means that people who die of cancer because they do not get the right drugs or other diseases will get medical help," he added.
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| People arrive at the concert 'Venezuela Live Aid' Transboundary Tienditas Bridge Between Colombia and Venezuela, Cucuta, Colombia [Edgard Garrido/Reuters] |
Only 300 meters away, the first of about 150 performers started performing at Maduro's "Hands off Venezuela" festival.
"We will be here to denounce all the barbarity, the conspiracy, the blockages by which the United States Government will attack the democratic stability of Venezuela," said Dario Vivas, of the ruling Socialist party in Venezuela, on the website. building of this concert. Thursday.
The musical standoff is part of a power struggle between Maduro and Guaido, backed by the United States, who declared himself acting president on Jan. 23.
Struggle for power
The Colombian border town of Cucuta became the scene of a conflict between the two men.
Guaido has the support of the United States and about 50 other countries. Maduro maintains support from Russia, China and Turkey, among others, as well as from most state institutions, including the military.
Guaido has set Saturday the deadline for the aid stored at the border be allowed in Venezuela. Most of this badistance was provided by the United States.
He said that he would direct a caravan of volunteers to route aid through "sea, land and air".
"On the 23rd we will go to each [military] post to request that humanitarian aid be allowed, "Guaido told the press in Caracas.
"That they allow us to help save lives in our country and that we make room to open the humanitarian channel," he added.
But Maduro, who denies the presence of a humanitarian crisis in his country, pledged to block aid, calling it "provocative" and telling US President Donald Trump that he "should be concerned for the poor of his country ".
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| Milagro Mendes fled Venezuela more than three years ago. She now sells water and other drinks to Cucuta [Mia Alberti/Al Jazeera] |
Milagro Mendes, a Venezuelan saleswoman who sold water outside the Cucuta concert hall, said she thought the concert was a "very good thing".
"Our country needs help, peace and Maduro's willingness to give up because it has destroyed the country," said Mendes, 21, at Al Jazeera.
She left Venezuela three years ago because her family could not afford her education.
"I am now sending money to my father for his diabetes medications and for my mother's heart problems," she said.
Richard Alberto Dias, Colombo-Venezuelan, said that he had come to the concert to support the Venezuelan people.
"I am here to be with the Venezuelan people who need our help, but also to tell Maduro and the Venezuelan politicians that we are the majority," he told Al Jazeera. "And that tomorrow's help will come back as it pleases" or not. "
& # 39; Nothing is certain & # 39;
Security on both sides of the border has been strengthened this week before the caravan of help and concerts.
Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino said on Tuesday that his troops were "obedient and subordinate" to Maduro.
He warned the opposition that we would have to go over "our corpses" to overthrow Maduro.
"They will never accept the orders of any foreign government … They will remain deployed and alert along the borders, as our commander-in-chief has ordered, to avoid any violation of the integrity of our territory, "said Padrino.
In a televised speech, Maduro also said that he would "accuse" Colombian President Ivan Duque of "any violence that may occur at the border".
The mayor of Cucuta, Cesar Rojas Ayalla, told Al Jazeera that "nothing is certain", but he thinks that "Venezuelans will not shoot against their own people, their own blood".
Ayalla also said the city had 1,500 policemen on the concert site.
On Thursday, Maduro said he was closing the border with Brazil and was planning to do the same with Colombia. It has already closed the maritime border with Aruba, Bonaire and Curacoa, where help has been stored.
At least one person was killed and several others injured when Venezuelan soldiers opened fire on members of an indigenous community near the Brazilian border, Reuters news agency reported.
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| Humanitarian aid to Venezuela is presented in a warehouse of the Tienditas cross-border bridge between Colombia and Venezuela, in Cucuta, Colombia. [Luisa Gonzalez/Reuters] |
It is unclear how exactly the opposition plans to get help from the other side of the border if Maduro blocks it.
According to Reuters, volunteers could form a human chain and individually carry parcels out of the border.
In a statement, the Colombian migration authority said it would limit Saturday crossing the border to people involved in the transfer of aid.
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| The feeling at Friday's concert in Cucuta was that of the celebration [Mia Alberti/Al Jazeera] |
As the border struggle continues under a Latin pop music soundtrack, the humanitarian crisis between Colombia and Venezuelans worsens.
According to the United Nations, more than three million Venezuelans have fled hyperinflation and shortages of food and medicines since 2014.
Maira Fernanda Carrera, a Colombo-Venezuelan badistant at Friday's meeting in Cucuta, said she had not seen her father, who has been in Venezuela for 10 years.
"It's not so much the concert," she told Al Jazeera, "but rather the world that sees Venezuelans living at the border, looking for food and work."
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