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One Dead in Venezuela's Brazil Border Area After Troops Open Fire

by Marissa Melton

   At least one civilian has died in Venezuela and several more were
   injured in a confrontation with security forces near the national
   border with Brazil.

   Reports say the incident Friday took place near Kumarakapay and
   involved members of the indigenous community. A local official
   identified the victim as Zoraida Rodriguez.

   A local official, Mayor Emilio Gonzalez, told the Associated Press that
   members of the Pemon ethnic group clashed with the Venezuelan National
   Guard and the army as security forces moved tanks to the border with
   Brazil.

   Gonzalez said the troops fired rubber bullets and tear gas at the
   civilians.

   On Thursday, Venezuela's disputed president, Nicolas Maduro, closed the
   country's border with Brazil and threatened to do the same with
   Colombia to try to stop foreign aid from crossing into the country.

   Maduro sent Venezuelan soldiers to several border crossings.

   Tons of food, medicine and other aid -- primarily from the United
   States -- is sitting in warehouses on the Colombian side of a bridge to
   Venezuela.

   Maduro says Venezuela is not a nation of "beggars" and vows to refuse
   the aid, which he considers the vanguard of a U.S. invasion.

   Opposition leader and self-proclaimed interim President Juan Guaido has
   vowed to get the aid through on Saturday, despite the threat of
   military force.

   It is unclear how he plans to do that. But Guaido and his supporters
   have mobilized thousands of volunteers -- including doctors, nurses and
   ordinary citizens -- to help.

   Meanwhile, a group of Venezuelan lawmakers clashed with soldiers
   outside the capital, Caracas, as they tried to drive a truck through a
   highway roadblock on their way to the Colombian border.

   The soldiers fired tear gas when some of the lawmakers got out and
   tried to move the barriers. They demanded to know why the soldiers
   "support this insolence while the people die of hunger."

   "Pretending that humanitarian aid is not going to reach the people of
   Venezuela is an act of cruelty," Delsa Solorzano, deputy head of the
   National Assembly, said. "We know that these soldiers are passing the
   same need as all the people of Venezuela."

   As head of the opposition-led National Assembly, Guaido invoked the
   constitution to declare himself interim president after saying Maduro's
   reelection last year was a sham.

   The United States was the first to recognize Guaido as Venezuelan
   president, followed by about 50 other nations.

   Maduro has offered to meet with Guaido, but is refusing to step down or
   call for early elections.

   The collapse in global energy prices, corruption and failed socialist
   policies have left oil-rich Venezuela's economy in a shambles.

   More than 3 million people have fled the country and its severe
   shortages of food, fuel and basic goods.