{"id":26789,"date":"2016-07-11T01:45:09","date_gmt":"2016-07-11T01:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/thousands-of-venezuelans-pour-into-colombia-to\/"},"modified":"2016-07-11T01:45:02","modified_gmt":"2016-07-11T01:45:02","slug":"thousands-of-venezuelans-pour-into-colombia-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/thousands-of-venezuelans-pour-into-colombia-to\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands of Venezuelans pour into Colombia to buy food"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Tens of thousands cross into Colombia after border opens briefly for the first time in nearly a year.}<\/p>\n

Tens of thousands of Venezuelans have poured across into neighbouring Colombia to buy basic goods amid shortages at home, during a brief opening of the border that has been closed for almost a year. <\/p>\n

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro closed the border in August 2015, citing smuggling and penetration by Colombian fighters. On Sunday, he authorised a 12-hour opening of the pedestrian bridge that connects Tachira, in Venezuela, and Cucuta, in Colombia, for the first time in 11 months. <\/p>\n

Victor Bautista, the director of the Colombian border authority, said that an estimated 35,000 Venezuelans had arrived in Cucuta.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Lootings soar in Venezuela amid food scarcity<\/p>\n

Some 25,000 people surged in within the first seven hours, William Villamizar, governor of the Norte de Santander department that includes Cucuta, said on Twitter. <\/p>\n

“Thank you for this welcome, the people of Venezuela are experiencing a serious humanitarian situation,” Jose Gregorio Sanchez, a resident of the border town of Urena, told the AFP news agency. <\/p>\n

Venezuela has been mired in a deepening economic crisis that has emptied shop shelves and created a shortage of medicine. The recent slump in oil prices devastated the OPEC nation’s economic model, leading to growing anger among the roughly 30 million residents.<\/p>\n

Critics also blame grave mishandling of the state-led economy.<\/p>\n

Maduro, elected in 2013 after the death of President Hugo Chavez, insists that he is the victim of an “economic war” led by businesses with the backing of the United States.<\/p>\n

Protesters demanding food have clashed with authorities in several cities in recent weeks amid demonstrations and looting that have turned deadly. <\/p>\n

Some 500 desperate Venezuelans illegally stormed the border earlier this week in search of basic goods.<\/p>\n

“There’s no medicine for children; children are dying,” Tulia Somaza told AFP.<\/p>\n

“People don’t even have soap to wash clothes”.<\/p>\n

In a sign of Maduro’s concern at mounting social unrest, the president replaced the head of the National Guard on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The Venezuelan opposition launched its efforts to remove the president, including a bid for a recall referendum, after winning control of the legislature in January.<\/p>\n

But Maduro has challenged his rivals through the Supreme Court, which they accuse him of controlling.<\/p>\n

Maduro ordered the border shut last year after former Colombian fighters attacked a Venezuelan military patrol and wounded three soldiers, causing a diplomatic row between the neighbouring countries.<\/p>\n

\"Venezuela<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Tens of thousands cross into Colombia after border opens briefly for the first time in nearly a year.} Tens of thousands of Venezuelans have poured across into neighbouring Colombia to buy basic goods amid shortages at home, during a brief opening of the border that has been closed for almost a year. Venezuelan President Nicolas […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-26789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26789\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26789"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=26789"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=26789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}