Venezuela: chaos and desertions mark the day

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The attempt to enter humanitarian aid through different frontiers, more than a dozen military deserters and the #VenezuelaAidLive Concert stand out among the main events in Venezuela

Venezuela persists in its struggle to recover freedom and democracy. This has been a very important weekend for this country's history, in a situation that became a humanitarian crisis and in which other governments of neighboring nations such as Colombia, Chile and Paraguay are already actively participating and collaborating. In LatinAmerican Post we review what happened from last Friday to Saturday afternoon.

Leer en español: Así han transcurrido las primeras horas cruciales de la situación en Venezuela

Let's start with what left the strenuous Saturday and then with the best moments of the #Venezuelaaidlive Concert, promoted by the British businessman Richard Branson, with which they hope to raise in a period of approximately two months 100 million dollars, and in which various artists from Argentina, Colombia, Spain, the United States, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Sweden and Venezuela performed.

Humanitarian aid objectives were not achieved

Venezuela's big day did not happen, or at least not as its citizens expected. Humanitarian aid could not enter normally —we have to say that it was not expected to be easy—, because at the time of writing this article, only one truck had entered Santa Elena de Uairen, border with Brazil. On this border, incidentally, the media did not have the same coverage and reported attacks of guards against civilians, with a first balance of 20 wounded persons, according to the Twitter account of journalist German Damm. The cargo that entered through Brazil was confirmed by Juan Guaidó himself in his twitter account.

A second aid that would arrive by ship from Puerto Rico to the town of Puerto Cabello in the central state of Carabobo was still awaited at the time of writing this article. Undoubtedly, the big news of the day around humanitarian aid are about the unfortunate events that occurred on the Venezuelan border, and in the population of Ureña, where there were also clashes between guards and civilians, with many injured and unspecified figures.

Three trucks that managed to cross the border from Colombia to Venezuela were immediately burned by armed groups of Nicolás Maduro's government due to the indifference of the security officials. Some citizens tried to save part of what these units were transporting, mainly medicine and food. LatinAmerican Post compiled some tweets that summarize part of what happened with humanitarian aid until mid-afternoon this Saturday:

Military deserters

According to El Tiempo from Colombia, Migración Colombia, Colombia¡s immigrant office, interviewed 10 members of the Venezuelan guard who defected and women from the Bolivarian National Police who entered the neighboring country fleeing Nicolás Maduro's dictatorship. The members of the Venezuelan guard were identified as Lieutenant Richard Sánchez Zambrano, Sergeant Major Edgar Torres Valera and Sergeant Óscar Suárez Torres.

The same organization reported that on Saturday morning four members of the Venezuelan Guard revolted against Nicolás Maduro's regime, which  occurred at the Simón Bolívar International Bridge, so these officials had to support themselves in Migración to avoid being beaten by the crowd.

Similarly, Colombian authorities reported that two civilians were injured: Ana Gabriela Petit, 24 years old, who has an open wound on her forehead; and Henry Alexander Rincon, 16, who, in turn, presented a multiple trauma in the legs.

Finally, Migración confirmed the delivery of a fourth Venezuelan guard, the first sergeant surnamed Linares, as identified in a video made public by Luz Mely Reyes, director of Efecto Cocuyo from Venezuela, through her twitter account.

The most important part of the concert

El País Colombia emphasized the best political moment of the event: when the interim president of Venezuela, Juan Guaidó, arrived unexpectedly and enjoyed, along with the leaders Iván Duque (Colombia), Sebastián Piñera (Chile) and Mario Abdo Benítez (Paraguay) and the Secretary of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro, the closing of the show by the Spaniard Alejandro Sanz, the Colombian Juanes and the Venezuelans Chino and Nacho.

Lele Pons, the renowned Venezuelan influencer on social networks in the United States and Latin America, attended the concert in the company of Hanna Stocking and El Juanpa Zurita, also recognized for their virtual influence on young people from around the world. Another one that left a mark was the Spaniard Miguel Bosé, who before interpreting "Te Amaré" did not doubt to criticize Nicolás Maduro's goverment, even asking the UN Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, to visit Venezuela so she can get to know well the situation.

El País also referred to the hug of two beloved and influential Venezuelan artists such as Chino and Nacho, who split up because of personal differences and continued with their solo careers, but this time, due to the entry of humanitarian aid, they came together again. At the end of the concert, led by the Colombian Fonseca, several artists sang along with Branson, the event's organizer, "Imagine" by John Lennon, who was received with applauses, joy and a excited public waiting for this Saturday humanitarian aid arrival to their country.

The multitudinous event, held at the Las Tienditas bridge in Cúcuta, exceeded the expectations of attendance, and finally received 317 thousand people. Finally, Caraota Digital reviewed through Youtube what was perhaps the most emotional and shocking moment of the multitudinous concert: the speech by the Mexican motivational lecturer Daniel Habif, who made the audience cry with his words of enthusiasm and encouragement, and in which he decreed the end of an era of oppression under the command of Nicolás Maduro.

News in development

LatinAmerican Post | Onofre Zambrano

Translated from "Así han transcurrido las primeras horas cruciales de la situación en Venezuela"