A Venezuelan governor assures that Maduro has ordered the temporary closure of the border with Colombia
The governor of the Venezuelan State of Táchira, Freddy Bernal, has announced the closure of the border with Colombia until next Monday “on instructions from Nicolás Maduro” and in the face of an alleged “international conspiracy to disturb the peace” in Venezuela. “Especially this border area,” Bernal detailed, without mentioning by name the opponent Edmundo González, who promises to return to Venezuela for his own inauguration. The Simón Bolívar bridge, the main border crossing between the Colombian city of Cúcuta and the Venezuelan San Antonio del Táchira, woke up with containers crossed to prevent passage.
The closure will be in force from 5 in the morning this Friday until 5 in the morning on Monday, the Chavista leader has detailed. “Rest assured that we have absolute control of the State and we will guarantee under any circumstances the tranquility and peace of all the people of Tachira,” he stated. The governor has appealed for the “understanding” of people who may be affected, particularly those who cross the border daily.
The Colombian Government had already warned in a recent statement that it saw “possible” a closure of the common border in view of the presidential investiture organized by Maduro in Caracas this Friday and in view of the anticipation that the opponent Edmundo González could try to enter Venezuela.
Migration Colombia, which monitors the movement of people between the two countries that share a porous border of more than 2,000 kilometers, had already anticipated this possibility the day before. Colombia is by far the main host country for the Venezuelan diaspora, with almost three million citizens of the neighboring country in its territory.
Many observers fear a new wave if Maduro takes office, even though all available evidence shows that he lost the election by a wide margin to Edmundo González, in exile since September.
