Poverty-stricken Venezuelans stream across border into Colombia for food and medicine

More than 70,000 said to have crossed border after it was opened for first time since 2015

Venezuelans at the bridge linking San Antonio del Tachira, in Venezuela with Cucuta, Colombia (AFP/Getty)

Tens of thousands of Venezuelans poured into neighbouring Colombia to buy food and medicine on Saturday after authorities briefly opened the border that has been closed for almost a year.

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.

Colombia’s foreign ministry said in a statement that at least 35,000 Venezuelans entered Colombia on Saturday, and their entry took place “in an orderly manner and under conditions of security”. The border was opened for roughly eight hours and will be opened again on Sunday, it said. Roughly 35,000 people also crossed during last week’s 12-hour border opening.

Saturday’s opening took businesses in the Colombian border city of Cucuta by surprise since it had been announced that the border would opened on Sunday.

Colombian Defence Minister Luis Carlos Villegas said “we have made a great effort to have sufficient supplies” for the Venezuelans expected to stream across the border on Saturday and Sunday.

Governor Jose Vielma of the Venezuelan border state of Tachira said that President Nicolas Maduro supported the opening, ordering that people “not be disturbed” when they crossed into Colombia.

Mr Maduro blames the shortages of food, medicine and basic staples in Venezuela on his opponents, who he accuses of trying to sow economic chaos to oust him from office. His critics accuse his socialist government of economic mismanagement.

Mr Maduro ordered the 1,378-mile (2,219 kilometre) border to be shut in August 2015 to clamp down on criminal gangs smuggling goods and gasoline into Venezuela to be sold at subsidised prices.

Before it was closed, more than 100,000 people daily used the two main crossings, according to the Venezuelan government. That has shrunk to just 3,000 a day, many of them students and sick people given special day passes, non-profit groups working in the region say.