Embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has faced growing regional pressure on Sunday after troops, supporting him, repelled international aid convoys, with the US threatening new sanctions and Brazil urging to join a “liberation effort” to allies.
According to Reuters news reports, violent clashes with the security forces on Saturday over the opposition Juan Guaido US-backed effort to bring the humanitarian aid into Venezuela, left around 300 people wounded and at least three protesters dead near its border along with the Brazilian.
Guaido has urged the foreign power to consider all the “options” in ousting Maduro ahead of the regional Lima Group’s meeting on Monday in Bogota, expected to be attended by the United States vice president Mike Pence.
A senior US administration official has on Sunday said that Pence is all set to announce “concrete steps” and “clear actions” at a meeting to address the Venezuelan crisis, further declining to offer more details. The US last month imposed sanctions over the OPEC oil industry.
While speaking with reporters on a condition of anonymity, the official said, “What happened yesterday is not going to deter us from getting humanitarian aid into Venezuela.”
Brazil, for years, was a vocal ally of Venezuela, but however, turned sharply against Venezuelan socialist president Maduro this year Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro took office.
In a statement, the Brazilian foreign ministry said: “Brazil calls on the international community, especially those countries that have not yet recognized Juan GUaido as interim president, to join in the liberation effort of Venezuela.”
Colombia, who had yet received about 3.4 million of migrants fleeing from Venezuelan border due to an economic meltdown, has also stepped up its criticism of embattled Venezuelan president since swinging to right last year.
In a tweet, Colombian President Ivan Duque denounced Saturday’s “barbarity”, and said Monday’s conference would discuss “how to tighten the diplomatic siege of the dictatorship in Venezuela”.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel has said on Sunday Venezuela was the victim of Washington imperialist efforts to restore neoliberalism in Latin America.
Trucks loaded with US humanitarian aid such as food and medicines, on the Colombian border repeatedly has attempted to push the lines of Venezuelan troops on Saturday, but instead met with tear gas and rubber bullets. Also, two out of all trucks went up in flames, which Guaido blamed on security forces and Maduro on “drugged-up protesters”.
The Venezuelan Observatory of Violence, a local crime monitoring group, said it had confirmed three deaths on Saturday, all in Santa Elena, and at least 295 injured across the country.