VENEZUELA-COLOMBIA/SANTOS-DEPORTEES Colombian officials meet on border situation as deportees struggle

Record ID: 142166

  • Title: VENEZUELA-COLOMBIA/SANTOS-DEPORTEES Colombian officials meet on border situation as deportees struggle
  • Date: 28th August 2015
  • Summary: CUCUTA, COLOMBIA (AUGUST 28, 2015) (REUTERS) GENERAL VIEW OF STREET WHERE COLOMBIAN DEPORTEES HAVE SETTLED WITH THEIR BELONGINGS VARIOUS OF PEOPLE TALKING IN STREET VARIOUS OF BELONGINGS OF COLOMBIAN DEPORTEES IN STREET (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) COLOMBIAN DEPORTEE FROM VENEZUELA, ROSA HERRERA, SAYING: "If the president (Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro) made a decision to solve this because to say: 'Today yes, tomorrow no.' He has to have a definite solution so that one can ultimately get out of this with the children." GENERAL VIEW OF SHELTER FOR COLOMBIAN DEPORTEES CHILDREN PLAYING IN SHELTER VARIOUS OF STOCK OF FOOD IN SHELTER CHILDREN CHOOSING DONATED SHOES
  • Embargoed: 12th September 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Colombia
  • Country: Colombia
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA9D2B84R31JZWOYYROOYO3FXUU
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Over a thousand Colombians who have been deported from Venezuela amid a diplomatic crisis sparked when socialist-run Venezuela closed two border crossings were struggling to cope on Friday (August 28).
    Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro shut the crossings last week after a shootout between smugglers and troops wounded three soldiers. He later extended the closing indefinitely and has characterized the deportations as a crackdown on paramilitary gangs.
    Venezuelan citizen, Ricardo Ayala, said he hoped the situation improved for everyone's sake.
    "The expectations for all these people who live here on the edge of the border is that it (situation) improves for the good of everyone. On the Colombian side, things have been a bit slow. The foreign minister said on Thursday that it was a sovereign measure by the government of Venezuela and see the sovereign measure they have, almost five thousand displaced from Venezuela to here," said Ayala.
    On Thursday (August 27), Venezuela and Colombia each recalled their respective ambassadors.
    On Friday, Santos met with his cabinet ministers to analyse the humanitarian and economic consequences of the border closing.
    He demanded that Colombians be treated with respect.
    "In Venezuela, we insist, we are not asking, we demand and we will always demand respect for human rights of all these Colombians who thought they were on friendly soil and they have been abused. They are humble Colombians, they are not paramilitaries. They are people of flesh and blood who deserve to be treated with dignity," said the centre-right Santos said in Bogota.
    "Our priority has been and remains the focus of the humanitarian emergency. I repeat, our priority has been and will remain to properly serve our countrymen who are faced with this humanitarian emergency," Santos added.
    Nearly 1,100 Colombians living in Venezuela have been deported since the border closure, and Santos said between 5,000 and 6,000 more have fled voluntarily.
    Many of those deported said their houses had been destroyed. Hundreds have waded across the river on the border carrying refrigerators, animals and mattresses.
    The Colombian government said the Venezuelan foreign minister had agreed to let moving vans cross the border on Thursday to remove possessions of fleeing Colombians, but that the trucks had not been allowed in.
    Colombian deportee from Venezuela, Rosa Herrera, said she hoped the problem was solved soon.
    "If the president (Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro) made a decision to solve this because to say: 'Today yes, tomorrow no.' He has to have a definite solution so that one can ultimately get out of this with the children," said Hererra.
    The Colombian government said it had opened shelters and provided aid to ensure people had enough food and lodging while a solution to the problem was found.
    Maduro says the deportations are part of a crackdown on Colombian paramilitaries who smuggle fixed-price goods and traffic drugs on the porous 2,219-km (1,379-mile) border.
    Maduro has said he will not reopen the border until the Colombian government does more to protect it.
    The spat recalls the frequent disputes between Venezuela and Colombia during the 14-year rule of Maduro's predecessor, Hugo Chavez. Critics say Maduro is copying his late mentor by stoking a crisis to distract Venezuelans from economic problems in the run-up to a parliamentary election in December.
    Santos has also faced criticism for his handling of the crisis. Ex-president and current opposition Senator Alvaro Uribe visited the border this week and decried what he said was government inaction in the face of aggression by the Maduro "dictatorship."
    Santos's ruling coalition will compete with Uribe's right-wing opposition party, among others, in local and regional elections on Oct. 25.
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