Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro speaks during a meeting with ministers at Miraflores Palace in Caracas yesterday. Maduro late Wednesday ordered two border crossings to Colombia closed for 72 hours after a shoot-out left three soldiers injured.
Reuters/Caracas
Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro late on Wednesday ordered two border crossings to Colombia closed for 72 hours after a shootout left three soldiers injured.
The soldiers were attacked during an anti-smuggling operation in the Venezuelan border town of San Antonio in the state of Tachira, according to the government.
“I’ve given instructions to close the border with Colombia at San Antonio of Tachira and in Urena immediately for 72 hours,” Maduro said on state TV near midnight on Wednesday.
Tachira state Governor Jose Vielma Mora said military personnel would be deployed to the smuggling-rife border area soon.
“I believe it is an inadvisable decision for the relations of our two countries,” Colombian Interior Minister Juan Fernando Cristo said yesterday. “Hopefully border crossings will be re-established quickly.”
Colombia’s foreign minister, Maria Angela Holguin, said the country’s police were working with Venezuela to capture the attackers.
As the Venezuelan currency sinks and inflation rages, many near the border are making money smuggling price-fixed goods, including gasoline, flour and shampoo, over to nearby Colombia for a handsome profit.
Organised smuggling groups also operate in the area, buying goods in Venezuela to resell in Colombia, exacerbating shortages in crisis-hit Venezuela.
