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Nicolas Maduro

COLOMBO. – Hundreds of Colombians fled Venezuela on Tuesday, opting to leave the country with their belongings rather than be deported empty-handed like more than 1 000 people sent home in an escalating border crisis.

Some carted refrigerators or mattresses on their backs as they made the trek from the Venezuelan state of Tachira back to their home country, wading through the waist-deep water of the river that forms the border.

“We left at 3am in the clothes we were wearing. We wanted to come back before they deported us,” said Rosana Morena, a 25-year-old Colombian who left with her two children.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro ordered the border between Tachira and the Colombian department of Norte de Santander closed last week in response to an attack by unidentified assailants on a military patrol, which wounded a civilian and three soldiers on an anti-smuggling operation.

He initially ordered the closure for 72 hours, but later extended it indefinitely, accusing the neighbouring country of waging “an attack on Venezuela’s economy.”

That was a reference to the rampant smuggling of heavily subsidised food and other goods out of Venezuela. – AFP.