Venezuelan army fires on Brazilian border: Woman dead

Dozens injured

A woman was killed and dozens more were injured on the Brazilian-Venezuelan border during a clash with police.

The soldiers opened fire when a group of civilians tried to keep the border open.

A woman has been killed and dozens more injured in clashes between Brazil and Venezuela during a clash with police as protesters marched on a jail holding others detained. have opposed the Maduro regime.

Jorge Peres, a local councilor in the indigenous Gran Sabana region who said he was present at the incident, called on the armed forces to answer the question of whether it is constitutional to shoot at unarmed natives.

At least 30 neighbors took to the streets after the shootings and abducted three soldiers, according to Carmen Elena Silva, 48, and George Bello, a local community representative.

"The majority of citizens support the entry of humanitarian aid and we want to keep our borders open," Silva said.

So far, the Venezuelan Ministry of Communications has not commented on the incident.

The activists belong to the indigenous Pemones tribe, which participates in the opposition's effort for help, sent by the US and other countries from neighboring countries. Humanitarian aid comes from states that have called on Nicolas Maduro to resign.

Maduro has ordered a full commitment to aid and has sent troops to close the Venezuelan border.

Today's clashes on the border with Brazil are seen by many as a harbinger of what will happen tomorrow, when humanitarian aid is expected to arrive, a fact that raises fears in the opposition of more violent incidents.

The United States condemns the incident

The US government reacted immediately, condemning the incident. "The United States condemns the killings, the attacks and the hundreds of arbitrary detentions that have taken place in Venezuela," said a State Department spokesman, adding that Washington was supporting the families of the victims in seeking accountability.

Meanwhile, some 3,4 million Venezuelans have fled the country since the start of the political and economic crisis, and the flow of departures has not diminished, the UN said today.

In a joint statement, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that of the total, about 2,7 million Venezuelans have taken refuge in neighboring countries such as Colombia and Peru. the rest found a host country outside Latin America.

On average, in 2018 about 5.000 people left Venezuela every day.

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