Venezuelan government condemns US-orchestrated 'propaganda show' at Colombian border

© Reuters / Marco Bello
Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido stands on a truck carrying humanitarian aid in Cucuta, Colombia

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza has blasted the United States and Colombia for organizing a "propaganda show" at the country's Colombian border. The border is currently the scene of a standoff over aid shipments.

"From the propaganda show organized at the border, the governments of the United States and Colombia have violated practically all the principles and purposes of the UN Charter," Arreaza tweeted on Saturday. "The world community observes them and will take appropriate action within the UN."

[...]

Rabidly anti-Maduro Senator Marco Rubio has visited the border to drum up support for regime change in Venezuela, as has US envoy to Venezuela Elliott Abrams, best known for smuggling weapons in aid shipments to Nicaragua's right-wing Contras in the early 1980s.

Tweeting in Spanish, Rubio warned the Venezuelan military, the majority of whom remain loyal to Maduro, to lay down their arms. "Now is the time, tomorrow will be too late," he said.

President Trump, who threw his support behind opposition leader Juan Guaido moments after Guaido declared himself interim president last month, was short on analysis and simply tweeted "God Bless the people of Venezuela!"

The United Nations has warned the US against using aid as a political pawn, and called for negotiations between Maduro and Guaido. "Humanitarian action needs to be independent of political, military or other objectives," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York on Wednesday.

'We are defending our borders and freedom': Maduro amid humanitarian aid tensions

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro has rallied a large crowd of supporters telling them that the country has been defending its sovereignty. The call comes as the opposition was trying to get 'aid' from the US across the border.

Maduro rejected the attempts by self-proclaimed interim president Juan Guaido to pressure border guards deployed to border crossings with Colombia to allow trucks in, calling the campaign an "attempted coup". He called on the people of Venezuela to band behind his government.

"It is not a time of betrayal, it is a time of loyalty to the country and the supreme ideals of Venezuela," he said.

Maduro dismissed the defectors, saying what they did was for show, just like the entire situation on the border orchestrated by the US government.

He stated that Venezuela was within its rights to defend its borders and the freedom of its people from a "Washington regime-change operation".

A deadline set by Guaido for the Venezuelan government to let in the American shipment expires on Saturday. Since morning there was high tension in the Venezuelan border town of Urena as well as at the Simon Bolivar bridge about 10 km away. Some clashes occurred between opposition activists and Venezuelan security forces, who used tear gas on several occasions.

The opposition leader traveled to Colombia and is organizing a truck convoy, but so far has failed to force them through the police cordon.

The Maduro government sees the highly-publicized attempt to deliver the aid as a PR stunt to bolster the opposition and as a possible cover to smuggle arms to the opposition. Legitimate international humanitarian organizations like the Committee of the Red Cross refused to take part in the operation.

Colombian leader orders humanitarian convoy to return

© GIAN EHRENZELLER/EPA-EFE
Colombian President Ivan Duque

Colombian Foreign Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo said on Saturday that President Ivan Duque ordered the trucks with humanitarian assistance for Venezuela to return back from the border with Venezuela.

"Measures were taken upon direct instructions by President Duque. Protecting people in the border zone remains the Colombian government's priority, therefore, the trucks are returning," the minister told reporters in the city of Cucuta on the Colombian-Venezuelan border.

Venezuela Aid Trucks Set Ablaze As Maduro Tells Trump: "Yankee, Go Home"

Update 2: True to his word, it appears the humanitarian aid trucks being sent from the west into Venezuela have been repelled by Maduro's guards as reports come in from social media that they are all now on fire.

Meanwhile, John Bolton is stirring the neocon pot...

Update 1: President Maduro addressed the nation on state-owned television, urging his supporters to revolt if he is harmed and telling Trump "Yankee, go home!" Headlines from the speech include (via Bloomberg):

• *VENEZUELA'S MADURO SAYS HE WILL HOLD POWER FOR MANY YEARS
• *VENEZUELA'S MADURO SAYS HE'S NO 'PUPPET OF THE EMPIRE'
• *VENEZUELA'S MADURO: TRUMP, DUQUE DON'T DECIDE FOR VENEZUELANS
• *MADURO: VENEZUELANS ARE DEFEATING U.S. COUP ATTEMPT
• *MADURO: GUAIDO SHOULD CALL ELECTIONS IF HE IS PRESIDENT
• *MADURO: PROTESTERS INCITING VIOLENCE ARE GOING TO PRISON
• *VENEZUELA'S MADURO SAYS HE WILL GUARANTEE SECURITY ON BORDER
• *VENEZUELA'S MADURO: GOVT HAS PLANS FOR ALL POSSIBLE SCENARIOS
• *VENEZUELA'S MADURO TELLS PRESIDENT TRUMP: 'YANKEE GO HOME'
• *VENEZUELA MADURO CALLS ON SUPPORTERS TO REVOLT IF HE IS HARMED
• *VENEZUELANS SHOULD RESOLVE OWN PROBLEMS, MADURO SAYS
• *VENEZUELAN HUMANITARIAN AID SEEKS U.S. INVASION, MADURO SAYS

President Trump has been quiet so far on Twitter, offering just this earlier today:

As we detailed earlier, unrest in Venezuela is intensifying at border crossings with Colombia after embattled President Nicolas Maduro declared the borders with both Colombia and Brazil closed late this week, and after violence at a town near the border with Brazil left two dead and 17 injured when national guard soldiers opened fire on a group of civilians attempting to keep open a segment of the southern border with Brazil for deliveries of humanitarian aid.

On Saturday CNN crews filmed confrontations between protesters and Venezuela's National Guard at Ureña near Colombia over demands of workers to cross into the neighboring country to work.

Source: Bloomberg Business' Andy Rosati via Twitter from Ureña. "Blocked by national guard, what was meant to be a peaceful protest in Venezuela is turning increasingly violent. Masked protesters hijacked a government bus and set it a blaze trying to break the soldiers' barricade."

"We want to work!" protesters chanted before being dispersed by tear gas and rubber bullets, after which the crowd hurled stones at the soldiers. Some among the crowed tried to dismantle a metal barrier blocking the Simon Bolivar international bridge, one of three major cross-border bridges near Urena, one of which has never been opened and was used by the US administration to claim Maduro had blockaded the country against outside aid.

It's also at this location that three members of Venezuela's Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) defected to the Colombian side on Saturday morning, later confirmed by Colombian authorities, but condemned by Caracas as an act orchestrated and staged by the opposition.

Tensions appear to be coming to head this weekend as previously US-backed Juan Guaido promised to personally lead caravans to ensure aid is brought in from both Colombia and Brazil, in order to undermine and otherthrow the Maduro government.

Footage emerged on Saturday which appears to confirm that "Interim President" Guaido is present at the Tienditas International Bridge which connects Tachira, Venezuela with Norte de Santander, Colombia.

Guaido is vowing to break the border blockade by personally entering Venezuela with an aid convoy.

He's reportedly there with with Colombian president, Iván Duque and President of Chile, Sebastián Piñera - all of which are promising to facilitate the entry of aid.

Meanwhile as unrest at multiple border towns in Venezuela grows, Maduro called on Venezuelans to "mobilize" Saturday.

"Let's all take to the streets to defend our independence with conscience and joy," Maduro said via his official Twitter account.

Juan Guaido on the Colombian side of the Tienditas International Bridge Saturday.

This further comes a day after British billionaire Richard Branson sponsored a Live Aid-inspired show in Cucuta, Colombia, involving popular Latin American singers and appearances by the presidents of Colombia, Chile, and Paraguay.

Guaido himself also made a surprise appearance at the end of the concert in defiance of a ban on him leaving Venezuela.

According to the AP, Guaido may have traveled across the border on a Colombian air force helicopter:

It's not clear how Guaido sneaked into Colombia - in one video circulating on social media he appears running across a bridge near the Colombian town of Puerto Santander, while in another he could be seen boarding a helicopter belonging to the Colombian air force.

Last week, Guaido warned that Maduro had until February 23 to allow aid into the country, which in the US was echoed by Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who told Axios on Wednesday that Saturday could ultimately decide the fate of Maduro as the standoff over aid comes to a head, given the opposition is ready to force the issue in as visible way as possible.

The provocative actions to undermine Maduro's power have been acknowledged as just that by the opposition, who've recently openly stated that the "humanitarian channel" is a direct political jab at Caracas. Though the tons of much needed aid, including food and medicine supplies, is reportedly piling up along border points especially in Colombia, it's anything but merely "benevolent" - the opposition acknowledges.

"The impact of the humanitarian aid is highly political," Juan Miguel Matheus, an MP for the opposition told CNN earlier this week. "Our first and primary goal is to provide relief for the Venezuelan population, but after that, with this move we want to checkmate Maduro."

"If the aid gets in, Maduro is shown to have lost control of the situation; if it doesn't get in, we show that Maduro doesn't care for the suffering of the people," he added.

The spotlight also remains this weekend on Cucuta, where US aid shipments are being delivered via US Air Force planes and staged for delivery. Meanwhile national security adviser John Bolton has canceled a planned trip to South Korea to "focus on events in Venezuela."

developing...

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