Venezuelans break through blockade on main bridge to Colombia

Cucuta — Hundreds of Venezuelans poured across the Simon Bolivar International Bridge into Colombian territory this Tuesday morning after breaking through the security blockades set up by the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB).

Venezuelans had been stopped at the Colombian border because they were unable to take the illegal crossings that were now flooded by the rising Tachira River - so they climbed over or got around the barrier of huge shipping containers that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro ordered installed there to prevent citizens from crossing the bridge.

Meanwhile, Colombian Migration Director Christian Kruger said the Maduro government and the GNB are responsible “for whatever happens to people who make a daily crossing between Colombia and Venezuela,” now that they have the blockades to deal with.

“As we have said for almost a month, the decision of the usurper Maduro to block the bridges with shipping containers to stop people from going over them only leads to irregular methods of entry,” during which anything can happen, Kruger told reporters.

Many people continue to get over or around the shipping containers placed on the Venezuelan side last Feb. 27, and which block the middle of the bridge that connects the Colombian city of Cucuta with San Antonio in Venezuela.

Four days before that, Maduro broke off relations with Colombia and closed the three border crossings to Cucuta after the frustrated attempt by opposition leader Juan Guaido, accepted by more than 50 countries as interim president of Venezuela, to bring humanitarian aid into his country, an effort that ended in an outbreak of violence.

Faced with that situation, thousands of people head daily for the illegal crossings known as shortcuts hoping to stock up on food, medicines and hygiene products in Colombia.

Kruger said that “Venezuelans have found themselves forced to use those shortcuts so they can cross into Colombia and then return to their own country” where “they not only have to bribe the Bolivarian National Guard, but now also risk their lives in the torrential waters of the Tachira River.”

“Maduro is playing with the lives of Venezuelans, and this should be condemned by the international community,” the official said.

Last March 15, Colombian police began to run checks on migrants who use the illegal crossings.

As part of the operation they track criminal records, “verify the legality of their ID documents and inspect whatever goods they’re carrying,” Cucuta’s Metropolitan Police commander, Col. Jose Luis Palomino, told reporters at the time.