2/23/19
Waving banners and chanting slogans against their government, supporters of Venezuela’s opposition prepared to defy President Nicolás Maduro on Saturday and make good on their promise to break his humanitarian aid blockade along the country’s multiple borders. Already, the conflict had turned deadly. On Friday, security forces opened fire on a crowd blocking access to a road, killing two people and injuring a dozen others. It raised fears that more bloodshed could follow on Saturday as more confrontations ensued. As evening fell on Friday, Mr. Maduro’s government added three bridges at the Colombian border to a growing list to border closures that included Brazil and three Caribbean islands, effectively sealing off most of Venezuela’s main entry points by land and sea. But a Venezuelan official also hinted that the government might be easing its hard-line stance. Diosdado Cabello, a top official in the ruling party, said that if some Venezuelans entered with aid in their hands, “nothing would happen” to them.
As the sun rose on Saturday morning, several hundred Venezuelans had gathered in an empty lot beside the Tienditas Bridge here in Cúcuta, under a massive flag hung from a crane. “I know it’s been a long night but we are moving ahead,” an opposition member, Adolfo Marin, said to the crowd. “The soldiers of the lower and middle classes today need humanitarian aid too,” Victor Barboza, an organizer in the camp, said of the security forces waiting on the other side of the bridge. “They have a child who only eats just one meal a day. They have a sister that can’t get medicine for her illness.” Mr. Guaidó was expected to be among those leading the march over the bridge. But it was unclear whether the authorities would allow him into the country or arrest him for defying a travel ban that Mr. Maduro’s government had imposed. Some Colombians expressed sympathy with Mr. Guaidó’s cause and solidarity with those on the other side of the border. “We’ve come to help Venezuelans,” said Claudia Pérez, a 38-year-old resident of Cúcuta, which has been hit hard by a wave of Venezuelans fleeing the country. “We on the border have suffered because public services have deteriorated because of overpopulation and growing insecurity.” On the Venezuelan side of the border, soldiers interviewed said their morale was low. Many said they were suffering from the same shortages of food as the protesters and said they did not want to fire on them if they stormed the bridge.
