Cucuta (Colombia): Venezuela’s opposition leader Juan Guaido has claimed the military helped him defy a travel ban by the government of President Nicolas Maduro as he joined thousands over the Colombian border Friday for a charity concert to push for humanitarian aid deliveries.
Maduro is trying to prevent food and medicines, mainly from the US, from entering the country as tensions over access to the supplies turned deadly elsewhere.
Humanitarian aid has become a key focus of the power struggle between Maduro and Guaido, who has been recognised as interim leader by more than 50 countries.
Guaido delivered a blow to Maduro as he turned up unexpectedly at the concert in this Colombian border town, claiming ‘the armed forces participated in this process’ to help him flout his travel ban.
The powerful military’s backing is crucial to the viability of the socialist leader, with defections strengthening Guaido’s hand.
The 35-year-old leader of Venezuela’s National Assembly declared himself as interim-President last month and is calling for fresh polls, branding Maduro a ‘usurper’ and accusing him of rigging his re-election last May.
The tense standoff over aid meanwhile claimed its first casualties Friday as two indigenous people were killed trying to prevent troops from sealing unofficial pathways across the Brazilian border.
“A woman and her husband were killed and at least 15 other members of the Pemon indigenous community were injured,” said a local human rights group, Kape Kape.
The violence occurred in southeastern Bolivar state close to the border with Brazil, which Maduro ordered closed, Thursday.
Guaido called on the military to arrest those responsible for the killings, ‘or you will be responsible’.
“It wasn’t a clash, it was an attack,” said Salomon Perez, who accompanied a brother and two nieces suffering from gunshot wounds by ambulance to a hospital in Brazil. “People were in their community, calm. The soldiers came and started shooting at the indigenous people,” he said from Roraima state in northern Brazil.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued a stern statement, warning Venezuelan authorities ‘not to use lethal force against demonstrators’.
The ‘Venezuela Aid Live’ concert here was organised by British entrepreneur Richard Branson in support of Guaido’s humanitarian aid relief plan.
Guaido appeared alongside Colombian President Ivan Duque, Chile’s Sebastian Pinera and Mario Abdo of Paraguay as crowds cheered.
Guaido has set a Saturday deadline for the entry of humanitarian aid, stating that as many as 3,00,000 Venezuelans are in dire need of food and medicines after years of shortages and malnutrition. Some 2.7 million people have fled Venezuela since 2015 amid a devastating political and economic crisis, according to UN figures released Friday.
AFP