Timerman to meet Maduro on Venezuela-Colombia border crisis

Venezuela has extended a partial border shutdown with Colombia and sent another 3,000 troops to the area in a crime crackdown that has sent thousands of Colombians fleeing their adopted homeland and led to accusations of rights abuses.

More than 1,000 Colombians have been deported and about 15,000 have fled Venezuela in fear of deportation, the United Nations says.

Of those who have returned to Colombia voluntarily, “approximately 17,462” people have done so via Norte de Santander, in the capital of which, Cucuta, the bulk of the humanitarian assistance to help those affected by the crisis with Venezuela has been deployed by the Colombian government.

Maduro also declared a state of emergency in the municipalities of Guajira, Mara and Almirante Padilla, saying they are “subjected to relentless attacks by rebel groups, paramilitaries, criminals”.

Maduro says he is the target of U.S.-backed conservatives in Colombia bent on toppling his socialist government while turning a blind eye to decades of political and drug-fueled violence in Colombia that has made Venezuela a haven for many of its neighbor’s poor. Maduro said at a Cabinet meeting.

Images of hundreds of Colombians wading across a border river with refrigerators, chickens and mattresses on their backs as goats and children followed shocked many in Latin America.

“I have decided to close the border crossing at Paraguachon”, he said in a televised address, referring to a township and community, located in northwestern Zulia State.

A regional human rights court criticized Venezuela yesterday for forcing an opposition TV channel off the air in 2007 and told President Nicolas Maduro’s government to grant the broadcaster its old frequency.

“They are masters of their own land”, Vice President Jorge Arreaza said.

Venezuela has said it stands ready to give asylum to 20,000 refugees from the conflict in Syria. He noted that he had given instructions to Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez, TASS reports. Santos cited an alleged refusal by Venezuelan authorities to allow a visit by Colombia’s ombudsman to the border city of San Antonio de Tachira.

He repeated an offer to meet with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos to resolve the crisis.