Venezuela crisis: Desperate citizens 'selling hair on border' as thousands flee poverty-stricken country
Nicolas Maduro rejects trucks carrying humanitarian aid as 'political show'
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Your support makes all the difference.Desperate Venezuelans have reportedly been driven to sell their hair at the Colombian border as their troubled nation slips further into political crisis.
Trucks carrying humanitarian aid arrived in the Colombian border city of Cucuta on Thursday after the country’s embattled president, Nicolas Maduro, ordered his military to barricade a bridge between the two nations with a tanker and two containers.
President Maduro, who denies a humanitarian crisis exists and has said Venezuela is not a nation of “beggars”, rejected the aid convoy as a “political show”.
He has vowed to remain in power, despite dozens of nations around the world disavowing his leadership and recognising opposition leader Juan Guaido as the country’s interim president.
It remains to be seen whether Mr Maduro will allow the aid to enter the country, and he is expected to make a decision in the coming days.
“The so-called ‘humanitarian aid’ operation is a show, a cheap show, a bad show,” Mr Maduro said in interview with Mexican newspaper La Jornada published on Thursday. “You can be sure that it won’t disturb Venezuela.”
Mr Guaido, who requested the international assistance, has said it is necessary in a country racked by shortages of food and medicine.
The opposition leader, who is backed by around 40 countries, including the US, the UK and its European allies, and several South American nations, is seeking to oust President Maduro following an election last year which many have denounced as a sham. Russia and China are among the most prominent countries to continue to support Mr Maduro.
Mr Maduro has overseen an economic collapse in Venezuela that has left millions struggling to eat and led an estimated three million to leave the oil-rich OPEC country since 2015.
On Thursday, a coalition of European and Latin American nations urged Venezuela to engage in dialogue and hold fresh elections.
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said the International Contact Group does not intend to impose a solution, but is focused on finding answers to avoid violence or foreign intervention in Venezuela.
“We can have different points of view and readings about the causes of the crisis,” Mr Mogherini told a gathering of nations in the Uruguayan capital, Montevideo. “But we share the same objective, wishing to contribute to a politically peaceful and democratic solution.”
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