Tens of thousands of Venezuelans poured into neighboring Colombia to buy food and medicine on Saturday after authorities briefly opened the border that has been closed for nearly a year.
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Colombian authorities estimated that roughly 15,000 Venezuelans crossed over the border into Cucuta on Saturday.
Venezuela is facing severe food shortage and inflation has reached triple-digits.
Colombian Defense Minister Luis Carlos Villegas told reporters that security forces would guarantee the arrival of supplies for Cucuta’s residents as well as Venezuelan shoppers.
Unfortunately, Venezuela has a historically tense relationship with the USA and institutions like the International Monetary Fund, which otherwise might be willing to float it an emergency loan. So without radical changes to its constitution – or an enormous spike in oil prices – weekend trips to Colombia may remain the norm for Venezuelan consumers.
Maduro had ordered the border closing in August 2015 after an alleged Colombian paramilitary unit attacked a Venezuelan military patrol, wounding three people and raising tensions between the two governments. That has shrunk to just 3,000 a day, many of them students and sick people given special day passes, nonprofit groups working in the region say.
Last week 35,000 crossed over for the first time since the border was closed a year ago by President Nicolas Maduro to fight cross-border crime.
However, many Venezuelans reportedly returned home empty handed or with only a few products after finding the prices of good to be prohibitively expensive.
Border crossings over two global bridges were opened in the early Sunday morning hours without restrictions, although identity cards were checked.
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A similar measure last week led to dramatic scenes of the elderly and mothers storming Colombian supermarkets and highlighted how daily life has deteriorated for millions in Venezuela, where the economy has been in a free fall since the 2014 crash in oil prices.
