COLOMBIA-VENEZUELA/BORDER-OAS SECRETARY Almagro tours shelters where Colombians deported from Venezuela are living

Record ID: 141752

  • Title: COLOMBIA-VENEZUELA/BORDER-OAS SECRETARY Almagro tours shelters where Colombians deported from Venezuela are living
  • Date: 6th September 2015
  • Summary: CUCUTA, COLOMBIA (RECENT) (REUTERS) SPORTS ARENA BEING USED AS A SHELTER FOR DISPLACED PEOPLE PEOPLE SERVING FOOD TO DISPLACED PEOPLE INSIDE THE SHELTER FAMILY EATING INSIDE THE SHELTER
  • Embargoed: 21st September 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Colombia
  • Country: Colombia
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAEY1RC6TBW6FMDPNLWBVNH9E5F
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro traveled to Colombia's border with Venezuela on Saturday (September 5) to evaluate the recent dispute involving hundreds of Colombians who have been deported from Venezuela.
    Donamaris Ramirez, the mayor of Cucuta, Colombia- a porous border town that neighbors Venezuela- invited Almagro during a meeting between the two on Tuesday (September 1). The OAS recently voted against Colombia's proposal for a meeting on the border situation, but promised to send $25,000 (US) in humanitarian aid.
    "To find all of these elements that make the humanitarian situation sad, very sad for thousands. That is why we have come to see," said Almagro after touring the shelters.
    Over 16,000 Colombians have left their homes voluntarily in Venezuela since that country's president Nicolas Maduro ordered the deportation of some 1,300 Colombians in what he called a crackdown on smuggling and crime in the turbulent area.
    Colombian Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin participated in the visit as well.
    "We were with Mr. Almagro in two shelters where he had to opportunity to speak and to see firsthand," she said during a news conference.
    Recent images of hundreds of Colombians wading across a border river with refrigerators, chickens and mattresses on their backs as goats and children followed have shocked many in Latin America.
    Colombia contends many of the deported were in Venezuela legally, and there has been an outcry from rights groups over security forces branding houses with a "D" for demolition and razing some of them.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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