More than 500 Venezuelan soldiers have fled President Nicolás Maduro's crumbling regime for neighboring Colombia, the Colombian migration authority reported Thursday.

The wave of desertions comes as opposition leader Juan Guaidó continues to seek support from the armed forces, which are one of the foundations of Maduro's authority.

Colombia has counted 567 defectors since violent clashes between security forces and activists trying to bring US aid to Venezuela, according to CNN and Colombia's El Tiempo.

Venezuelans are living through one of the world worst's economic crises under Maduro's socialist regime, and are struggling with shortages of food and medicine.

Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have called on Maduro to step down, saying that his presidency is unconstitutional and fraudulent. Guaidó, the leader of Venezuela's National Assembly, has declared himself interim president, on the grounds that Maduro's reign is illegitimate.

Read more: Photos show chaos in Venezuela as protesters and soldiers clash over humanitarian aid shipments

Venezuelan migrants wait for free food being handed out by Colombian residents near the Simon Bolivar International Bridge in La Parada, on Colombia's side of its border with Venezuela, on February 24, 2019. Associated Press

Many saw Guaidó's attempt to transport aid over the Colombian-Venezuelan border at the weekend as a play to test the loyalty of Maduro's soldiers.

While the US, EU, Canada, and most of Latin America recognize Guaidó as Venezuela's interim president, he still needs the military's support to gain de facto control over Venezuela.

The Venezuelan armed forces are an important power base for Maduro. Military leaders in Venezuela publicly backed him last month.

Guaidó has claimed that he had met some members of the military in secret, implying that the military's solidarity with Maduro is not as solid as it may seem.

The soldiers who left for Colombia are mostly from middle and lower ranks, who are more affected by the country's hyperinflation and shortages, according to The Associated Press.

They also work with faulty equipment and are monitored by intelligence services, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) reported.

Amanda Lapo, a defense and military analyst at the IISS, said that it is not yet certain that increasing defections are a threat to Maduro.

"The defections don't appear to be on a senior enough level to undermine Maduro," she told Business Insider.

Venezuela's military, which employs between 95,000 and 150,000 active soldiers, has wide reach in the country. But the power is concentrated among high-ranking officials, who hold important government positions and control influential companies.

Many are also implicated in human rights abuses and drug trafficking, according to the AP. In other words, military leaders have a lot to lose if they defect.

Venezuelan officers also appear under pressure to support the Maduro regime. One defected soldier told Al Jazeera English that the government would "threaten us. If we weren't part of their political party, they'd lock us up."

Venezuelan police guard the Tienditas International Bridge in Venezuela on February 22, 2019. Associated Press

'Their loyalty is not unanimous anymore'

Lapo said, however, that the defection do show a split in the military.

"What they do reflect is that there is a division in the armed forces. Their loyalty is not unanimous anymore," she said told Business Insider.

"There is a growing gap between the middle and lower ranks who feel the effects of the crisis and the higher ranks which enjoy economic benefits."

Winning the military over has proved a daunting task for Guaidó. Despite saying in a New York Times op-ed that he had offered amnesty to any member of the armed forces who hadn't committed crimes against humanity, he has only garnered the support of one high-ranking officer.

Francisco Yanez, a general in the Venezuelan air force, announced via video that he had broken from Maduro and pledged allegiance to Guaidó via video last month. He also claimed that "90% of the armed forces are not with the dictator," referring to Maduro.

Vladimir Padrino Lopez, Venezuela's defense minister, slammed the defectors and accused them of betraying their country.

He said in a video posted on Twitter: "It doesn't matter how many there are. Those who dishonor their uniforms can't call themselves soldiers."

Guaidó, meanwhile, said he wants to focus on galvanizing support from the military and state workers. He told reporters in Brazil that he will return to Venezuela this weekend, according to The Washington Post. </s> More than 500 Venezuelan soldiers have fled President Nicolás Maduro's crumbling regime for neighboring Colombia, the Colombian migration authority reported Thursday.

The wave of desertions comes as opposition leader Juan Guaidó continues to seek support from the armed forces, which are one of the foundations of Maduro's authority.

Colombia has counted 567 defectors since violent clashes between security forces and activists trying to bring US aid to Venezuela, according to CNN and Colombia's El Tiempo.

Venezuelans are living through one of the world worst's economic crises under Maduro's socialist regime, and are struggling with shortages of food and medicine.

Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have called on Maduro to step down, saying that his presidency is unconstitutional and fraudulent. Guaidó, the leader of Venezuela's National Assembly, has declared himself interim president, on the grounds that Maduro's reign is illegitimate.

Read more: Photos show chaos in Venezuela as protesters and soldiers clash over humanitarian aid shipments

Venezuelan migrants wait for free food being handed out by Colombian residents near the Simon Bolivar International Bridge in La Parada, on Colombia's side of its border with Venezuela, on February 24, 2019. Associated Press

Many saw Guaidó's attempt to transport aid over the Colombian-Venezuelan border at the weekend as a play to test the loyalty of Maduro's soldiers.

While the US, EU, Canada, and most of Latin America recognize Guaidó as Venezuela's interim president, he still needs the military's support to gain de facto control over Venezuela.

The Venezuelan armed forces are an important power base for Maduro. Military leaders in Venezuela publicly backed him last month.

Guaidó has claimed that he had met some members of the military in secret, implying that the military's solidarity with Maduro is not as solid as it may seem.

Venezuelan opposition leader and self-proclaimed President Juan Guaido in Caracas, Venezuela. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

The soldiers who left for Colombia are mostly from middle and lower ranks, who are more affected by the country's hyperinflation and shortages, according to The Associated Press.

They also work with faulty equipment and are monitored by intelligence services, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) reported.

Amanda Lapo, a defense and military analyst at the IISS, said that it is not yet certain that increasing defections are a threat to Maduro.

"The defections don't appear to be on a senior enough level to undermine Maduro," she told Business Insider.

Venezuela's military, which employs between 95,000 and 150,000 active soldiers, has wide reach in the country. But the power is concentrated among high-ranking officials, who hold important government positions and control influential companies.

Many are also implicated in human rights abuses and drug trafficking, according to the AP. In other words, military leaders have a lot to lose if they defect.

Venezuelan officers also appear under pressure to support the Maduro regime. One defected soldier told Al Jazeera English that the government would "threaten us. If we weren't part of their political party, they'd lock us up."

Venezuelan police guard the Tienditas International Bridge in Venezuela on February 22, 2019. Associated Press

'Their loyalty is not unanimous anymore'

Lapo said, however, that the defection do show a split in the military.

"What they do reflect is that there is a division in the armed forces. Their loyalty is not unanimous anymore," she said told Business Insider.

"There is a growing gap between the middle and lower ranks who feel the effects of the crisis and the higher ranks which enjoy economic benefits."

Winning the military over has proved a daunting task for Guaidó. Despite saying in a New York Times op-ed that he had offered amnesty to any member of the armed forces who hadn't committed crimes against humanity, he has only garnered the support of one high-ranking officer.

Francisco Yanez, a general in the Venezuelan air force, announced via video that he had broken from Maduro and pledged allegiance to Guaidó via video last month. He also claimed that "90% of the armed forces are not with the dictator," referring to Maduro.

Vladimir Padrino Lopez, Venezuela's defense minister, slammed the defectors and accused them of betraying their country.

He said in a video posted on Twitter: "It doesn't matter how many there are. Those who dishonor their uniforms can't call themselves soldiers."

Guaidó, meanwhile, said he wants to focus on galvanizing support from the military and state workers. He told reporters in Brazil that he will return to Venezuela this weekend, according to The Washington Post. </s> ARAUCA/CUCUTA, Colombia (Reuters) - Venezuela’s crisis is spilling across the border into Colombia as Marxist rebels and right-wing paramilitaries recruit migrants to strengthen their ranks, according to five Colombian military commanders.

FILE PHOTO: People walk along a pathway near the Colombian-Venezuelan border on the outskirts of Cucuta, Colombia June 10, 2019. REUTERS/Juan Pablo Bayona/File Photo

Violence still simmers in Colombia despite a 2016 peace deal with leftist FARC rebels, meant to end five decades of conflict. Dissident FARC fighters, the rebel National Liberation Army (ELN), right-wing paramilitaries and drug-trafficking gangs are battling each other and the military.

Keen for recruits, these armed groups are targeting Venezuelans as they traverse the porous 2,219-km (1,380-mile)frontier at illegal border crossings, according to the military officials, human rights officials and migrants themselves.

Five military commanders told Reuters that as many as 30% of insurgents in Colombia’s eastern border region are Venezuelans, willing to take up arms in return for food and pay.

“Recruitment of Venezuelans is happening,” said Colonel Arnulfo Traslavina, military commander of a special unit battling armed groups in Colombia’s eastern border state of Arauca. “The ranks of illegal armed groups are increasing. It’s a major threat to Colombia.”

Nationwide, an estimated 10% of fighters are Venezuelan, the commanders said. Their estimates were based on information from informants, deserters, captured rebels and residents.

Reuters was not able to independently verify these figures.

The head of Colombia’s military and government spokesman on this issue, General Luis Fernando Navarro, told Reuters that armed groups were targeting Venezuelans because they were easier to recruit than Colombians.

At the last official count by military intelligence in May, there were 2,296 FARC dissident combatants and 2,402 fighters from the ELN in Colombia. Including their urban offshoots, the two groups total nearly 8,400 members.

Rebel numbers are small compared with the 250,000 combat troops in the armed forces but Colombia’s rugged jungle terrain - spread across a country the size of France and Spain - makes it difficult for the military to tackle small, mobile units of fighters.

The military officers say they had interrogated some Venezuelans who had defected from armed groups and identified Venezuelan nationals killed in combat. They did not provide a total number for Venezuelan casualties.

Reuters was not able independently to confirm the information provided by the commanders or speak directly to any Venezuelans who had been recruited by an armed group.

Several Venezuelan migrants told Reuters they had been approached by armed groups for recruitment on entering Colombia.

“They said I’d get clothes, food, money, accommodation, a cell phone,” said Gregorio, a 20-year-old Venezuelan migrant who said he was asked to join an unspecified group in the mountains as soon as he waded across the Tachira River onto Colombian soil.

“I was tempted, but scared... I’d been told there were bad people offering such things and I didn’t want to join,” said Gregorio, who declined to give his second name for fear of reprisals.

An estimated 1.3 million Venezuelan migrants have settled in Colombia in recent years, fleeing shortages of food, electricity and water as the South American nation has seen its economy unravel amid a bloody political confrontation.

Most Venezuelans do not come to Colombia to enlist in insurgent groups but with almost nothing in their pockets, the prospect of food and shelter is enticing, said Deisson Marino, human rights ombudsman for the border region of Arauca.

“They end up enrolled in a war that has nothing to do with them,” said Marino, whose job involves traveling to remote areas and speaking to victims of the conflict and armed groups.

RECRUITING IN VENEZUELA

Colombia’s Defense Minister Guillermo Botero has said the military has more than doubled operations against armed groups since President Ivan Duque took office in August, looking to tackle a rise in illicit drug production and trafficking. Colombia is the world’s largest producer of cocaine.

“The ELN has been retreating - at least its leadership - to Venezuela where it’s recruiting for greater strength, to attack us,” Botero said recently.

A FARC dissident, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters the group was also present on Venezuelan soil and was recruiting Venezuelans.

The Venezuelan information ministry - which handles media enquiries for the government - did not respond to a request for comment about the conscription of Venezuelans by Colombia’s armed groups.

Venezuela’s government has acknowledged that the ELN and dissident FARC are present on its territory. It has said it does not support the groups or tolerate their presence, and that its troops pursue them as they would any other illegal group.

Representatives of the ELN did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The FARC, which became a political party after the peace deal and kept its former acronym, has publicly expelled the armed dissidents.

Since it was founded in 1964, the ELN has funded itself from kidnapping, drug trafficking and extortion but is increasingly making money from illegal migration, the officials said.

Military officials and rights workers say the ELN and colectivos - shadowy irregular armed groups in Venezuela affiliated with President Nicolas Maduro’s Socialist Party - control most of the crossing points into Colombia and demand payment from migrants and traders.

PICKING COCA

Army Colonel Rodolfo Morales, head of the army’s 30th Brigade in the border town of Cucuta, said migrants were also being drafted by drug trafficking groups to pick coca, the raw material for cocaine.

Antonio, another Venezuelan migrant who declined to give his second name, said that after crossing the border he was offered money by unidentified men to go into the jungles around Tibu - a border town around 115 km north of Cucuta in the dangerous Catatumbo region - to pick coca leaves.

“I’d rather go hungry than go with them,” said the 33-year old from the central Venezuelan state of Carabobo.

Colombia’s right-wing paramilitary groups, which battled the ELN and FARC for decades, are also recruiting migrants, the military officials said.

The paramilitaries were behind most of the 260,000 killings that occurred during the nation’s half-century conflict and never fully demobilized under a 2006 peace agreement.

Slideshow (2 Images)

Eddinson, 26, a migrant from Venezuela’s coastal state of Aragua, said he and three other Venezuelans were approached by armed men who identified themselves as paramilitaries as they trekked through the mountains of Santander province near the border.

Eddinson said the leader of the eight armed men - who were dressed in khaki uniforms - tried to recruit them.

“He said that training would last six months. We’d be given salaries according to rank,” said Eddinson, adding that he and the other Venezuelans declined the offer. “He told us that we’d know our start date but not when we could leave.” </s> Cucuta, Colombia, Feb 23 (EFE).- Venezuela’s National Police on Saturday impeded a human cordon that formed on a border crossing to accompany several trucks carrying humanitarian aid from this northeastern Colombia city.



In blocking the aid deliveries, the security forces fired tear gas at hundreds of civilians who had taken up positions on the Simon Bolivar International Bridge in the early-morning hours.



The civilians, who had demanded that the aid be allowed to cross and also called on the police to abandon their posts, responded by throwing rocks at the security forces.



Colombia’s police did not intervene in the conflict and remained positioned at the Migracion Colombia (migration agency) posts set up on that bridge to control the movement of people and goods across the border.



Several members of the National Police who were assigned to that border crossing deserted on Saturday and crossed over to the Colombian side of the frontier.



Several Colombian police escorted their Venezuelan counterparts to the other side amid the applause of Venezuelans gathered in the area.

 Migracion Colombia confirmed that at least 11 members of Venezuela’s National Guard and two police deserted on Saturday amid the attempts to deliver humanitarian aid from Colombia to Venezuela, which has been racked by severe food and medicine shortages and hyperinflation.



“At this time, Migracion Colombia, in Norte de Santander province, is expediting interviews with 10 members of the Venezuelan National Guard and two women with the Bolivarian National Police who arrived in the country fleeing Nicolas Maduro’s dictatorship,” that migration agency said.



One other member of Venezuela’s security forces deserted and crossed the border into the northeastern Colombian province of Arauca, according to the official report.



These isolated instances notwithstanding, the vast majority of Venezuela’s armed forces have remained loyal to leftist President Nicolas Maduro.



Separately, Venezuelan authorities on Saturday blocked the entry of trucks being used to carry humanitarian aid over two other border crossings – the Francisco de Paula Santander and Tienditas bridges.



They fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators on both of those bridges.



The speaker of Venezuela’s opposition-led National Assembly, Juan Guaido, who proclaimed himself interim president last month, traveled to Cucuta on Friday for a massive aid concert organized by British businessman Richard Branson and also to receive the international humanitarian aid stockpiled in Colombia.



He said Saturday that the trucks carrying the aid from Colombia were already in Venezuelan territory but that the leftist government was impeding their advance.



“The usurper regime is blocking (the trucks). They can’t deal with our irreversible decision to live in freedom,” Guaido wrote on Twitter.



The opposition leader said earlier Saturday that humanitarian aid trucks had entered Venezuela via that country’s border with Brazil.



Maduro has ordered both of those borders closed, saying that the humanitarian aid is a Trojan horse for a US-led military intervention.



Venezuela’s opposition, as well as the United States and much of the international community, regards Maduro’s May 2018 re-election victory to be fraudulent.



The US has also imposed severe sanctions on Venezuela’s oil industry in a bid to expedite regime change.



The major European nations – save Italy – also are among the roughly 50 governments that have recognized Guaido.



Several dozen other countries, including Russia, China and India, continue to recognize Maduro as Venezuela’s president. </s> CARACAS, Venezuela (CNN) — Three members of the Venezuelan National Guard defected Saturday at Venezuela’s border with Colombia, the Colombian immigration department said.

The troops abandoned their posts at the Simon Bolivar International Bridge on the Colombia-Venezuela border and requested help from Colombia’s immigration officials.

Also Saturday, soldiers with Venezuela’s National Guard fired tear gas at workers who were demanding to cross the border at Ureña into Colombia to work, according to a CNN crew that witnessed the scene at the Tienditas Bridge.

The workers faced off with the soldiers, chanting, “we want to work!” before being dispersed by the tear gas. Men with shirts covering their faces started throwing rocks toward the guard.

These tense scenes played out Saturday, a day after violence broke out at a Venezuelan town near the border with Brazil over aid delivery, leaving two people dead and 17 others injured, local authorities said.

Tensions are running high at Venezuela’s borders amid opposition plans to usher aid into the country this weekend in defiance of President Nicolas Maduro’s wishes. Maduro called on Venezuelans to “mobilize” Saturday. “Let’s all take to the streets to defend our independence with conscience and joy,” Maduro said on his official Twitter account. US argues momentum for change in Venezuela is growing despite border violence On Friday, a standoff occurred between a local indigenous community and the military over aid delivery near Gran Sabana, on the Brazil-Venezuela border, said the town’s mayor, Emilio Gonzalez. He told CNN the military opened fire on an indigenous group trying to facilitate the passage of aid into Venezuela. Gonzalez said soldiers shot and killed a 34-year-old indigenous Venezuelan woman and injured 17 others. National Assembly member Americo De Grazia said on his official Twitter feed that two people had died. The second victim was an indigenous man, according to De Grazia. Gonzalez said indigenous guards detained 27 Venezuelan military members. Venezuela’s Ministry of Defense told CNN it had no information on the incident. </s> At least four civilians were killed Saturday as Venezuelan security forces clashed with demonstrators at the border with Brazil over deliveries of humanitarian aid. More than 20 members of the Venezuelan military also switched their alliance to the opposition.

Foro Penal [Criminal Forum], a group that tracks violence in Venezuela, reported the four deaths Saturday. It said they took place in Santa Elena de Guairen near the border with Brazil. It said the victims were shot by pro-government militia members.

A spokesman for the group, Alfred Romero, posted a video on Twitter saying more than two dozen other people were wounded in the violence.

Meanwhile, the Colombian migration authority says it has counted 23 Venezuelan uniformed personnel, including 20 soldiers, who have crossed into Colombia declaring their surrender and, as Colombia put it, “fleeing the dictatorship of Nicolas Maduro.”

Venezuelan Army Major Hugo Parra announced his defection Saturday, telling VOA Noticias he recognizes opposition leader Juan Guaido as the legitimate president of Venezuela.

Guaido tweeted his praise of the soldiers’ actions.

“They aren’t deserters,” he said. “They’ve decided to put themselves on the side of the people and the constitution.”

Disputed President Nicolas Madura announced in a speech to his supporters Saturday that he is cutting off diplomatic ties with Colombia. Colombia President Ivan Duque has been making public appearances Saturday with Guaido as they work to transport aid across Venezuelan borders.

Duque said Colombian ambassadors and consuls have 24 hours to leave Venezuela.

Colombian Foreign Minister Carlos Holms Trujillo released a statement in response, saying, “Colombia holds the usurper Maduro responsible for any aggression or violation of the rights of Colombian officials in Venezuela.”

Maduro also said he would defend Venezuela’s independence with his life. He called Guaido a puppet of the White House.

He said if the United States attacks his country, “they will be received by the strength of the Venezuelan armed forces.”

Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted his support for Guaido.

Earlier Saturday, Guaido used Twitter to hail the first shipment of humanitarian aid arriving in Venezuela from its southern neighbor Brazil.

“This is a great achievement, Venezuela!” Guaido said in a tweet Saturday.

However, there were mixed reports about whether the aid actually made it to its destination, or remained stalled at the border.

A U.S. State Department official traveling with the aid convoy told VOA the shipment contained about 200 tons of food and medicine from the U.S. and Brazilian governments. They had been stored at a military base in Bao Vista, Brazil.

In the town of Urena, clashes took place early Saturday between Venezuelan National Guard troops and residents who were clearing a bridge so aid trucks from Columbia could enter the country. The troops fired tear gas and buckshot at the residents, some of whom hurled rocks in return. A city bus was also set on fire.

Local health officials in Urena told the Associated Press that at least two dozen people were injured.

Rights group Amnesty International on Saturday called on Venezuela to stop attacking its citizens, saying such attacks constitute serious human rights violations.

​Despite the nation’s rampant inflation and food shortages, embattled President Nicolas Maduro has rejected offers of aid from other countries, saying his countrymen are not beggars.

But Guaido, who has declared himself interim president, vowed to see that the donated supplies piled into warehouses at Venezuelan border crossings are allowed into the country. Throngs of people camped out overnight to help with the deliveries.

On Friday at the crossing at the Brazilian border, at least two civilians died in a clash with Venezuelan soldiers. Witnesses say the security forces used tear gas and bullets on demonstrators calling for the delivery of aid. The demonstrators reportedly fought back with arrows and rocks.

The White House said in a statement late Friday that the U.S. “strongly condemns the Venezuelan military’s use of force against unarmed civilians and innocent volunteers on Venezuela’s border with Brazil.”The statement also said: “Egregious violation of human rights by Maduro and those who are following his orders will not go unpunished.”

Also Friday, Guaido defied a government ban to leave Venezuela and attended the “Venezuela Live Aid” concert, which was arranged by British billionaire Richard Branson in Colombia to raise funds for the relief campaign.

Guaido claimed at the concert he arrived in Colombia with the help of the Venezuelan military, whose most senior officers have repeatedly declared absolute loyalty to Maduro.

As head of the opposition-led National Assembly, Guaido invoked the constitution to declare himself interim president after saying Maduro’s reelection last year was a sham.

The U.S. was the first to recognize Guaido as president, followed by about 50 other nations.

Maduro has offered to meet with Guaido, but is refusing to step down or call for early elections.

The collapse in global energy prices, corruption and failed socialist policies have left oil-rich Venezuela’s economy in shambles.

More than 3 million people have fled the country’s political and economic crisis since 2015. </s> BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia on Tuesday rejected a Russian warning against foreign military intervention in Venezuela and said it supported a peaceful transition to democracy in the neighboring South American country.

"Colombia reiterates that the transition to democracy must be conducted by the Venezuelans themselves peacefully and within the framework of the Constitution and international law, supported by political and diplomatic means, without the use of force," Colombian Foreign Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo said in a statement.

He was responding to a March 28 letter from the upper house of Russia's parliament, forwarded to Colombia's Congress by Russian Ambassador Sergei Koshkin, that said the "illegitimate use of military force against Venezuela by other states that support the opposition will be interpreted ... as an act of aggression against a sovereign state."

Venezuelan soldiers stand guard at the Tienditas International Bridge that links Colombia and Venezuela, near Urena, Venezuela, February 8, 2019. Associated Press

Russia has emerged as a staunch backer of Venezuela's leftist President Nicolas Maduro as his nation descended into political turmoil this year. The United States and dozens of other nations have backed opposition leader Juan Guaido, who invoked the constitution to assume Venezuela's interim presidency in January, arguing that Maduro's 2018 re-election was illegitimate.

Colombia, which supports Guaido, has repeatedly denied it has any intention of launching a military offensive across its border with Venezuela.

But in his statement on Tuesday, Trujillo said military support for Maduro's socialist government risked harming the transition to democracy while threatening regional peace and security.

The March touchdown near Caracas of two Russian air force planes carrying some 100 Russian special forces and cyber-security personnel has raised international concerns about Moscow's backing for Maduro.

Russia, which has supplied fighter jets, tanks, and air defense systems to Venezuela, has dismissed US criticism of its military cooperation with Caracas saying it is not interfering in the Latin American country's internal affairs and poses no threat to regional stability.

An airplane with the Russian flag at Simon Bolivar International Airport in Caracas, Venezuela, March 24, 2019. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso

Russian state-owned defense firm Rostec said Monday that it had owned a training center in Venezuela to teach the country's pilots to fly Russian-made Mi-35M helicopters gunships and Russian-made military transport helicopters.

Igor Chechikov, deputy chief executive at Russian Helicopters, told Russian news agencies on Tuesday that all the necessary equipment has been delivered to Venezuela and that construction of the training center should be done by the end of this year.

Colombia acted as a staging ground in February as the United States and other countries supported Guaido's effort to transport hundreds of tons of humanitarian aid into Venezuela. Maduro, who dismisses Guaido as a U.S. puppet, blocked the aid and Venezuelan troops pushed back protesters with tear gas.

Millions of Venezuelans have fled to Colombia to escape widespread food and medicine shortages in their chaotic homeland, seeking jobs locally and passage into other Latin American countries. </s> As Venezuelans flee their country in search of safety and economic security, another set of dangers awaits them across the border.

In Colombia’s northeast, where many Venezuelans have ended up, rival armed groups control illegal border crossings and wreak havoc on civilians with killings, intimidation, sexual violence and recruit children as soldiers, according to a new report by NGO Human Rights Watch.

The report focuses on the impoverished Catatumbo region, where armed groups — including the National Liberation Army (ELN), the Popular Liberation Army (EPL), and former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) — wage bloody battles for control not only between each other but also on Colombian soldiers. The area is an important one for coca cultivation, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

More than 100 civilians were killed there by the battling groups in 2018, according to the HRW report, which cites United Nations figures. Some Colombian and Venezuelan children have been coerced into either joining groups or enforcing their rules.

The report claims that in March, ELN fighters “visited a rural school in Catatumbo to try to convince children to join their ranks.” Some children have been threatened for allegedly cooperating with rival groups, according to HRW.

One mother told HRW that local fighters offered her son guns and a motorcycle to work for them, and later warned the family to avoid interacting with government soldiers.

As local authorities struggle to keep up with a rising number of homicides in the area, armed fighters are policing territories and local populations.

Tens of thousands of people have left the region since 2017, according to Colombian government figures cited in the report. Yet Venezuelans continue to flood in from across the border. Earlier this year, Reuters reported that internally displaced Colombians in the area “can be seen begging for food alongside” Venezuelan migrants and refugees.

Colombia has welcomed vast numbers of refugees from Venezuela since its economic downturn began accelerating. On Monday, Colombian President Iván Duque announced in a series of tweets that the country would grant citizenship to more than 24,000 children born to undocumented Venezuelan parents — any child born since August 19, 2015.

“Colombia, once again, is showing the world that even in the midst of fiscal constraints, with a per capita income of less than $8,000 dollars,” Duque said, “we also know how to make out of fraternity, a feeling of solidarity.” However, he also called for the international community to end Venezuela’s crisis, which has created an estimated exodus of four million people.

Colombia’s Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Foreign Relations did not respond to a request for comment. </s> Colombia issued a strong protest Tuesday over what it said was a border incursion by Venezuelan helicopters and troops over the weekend.

The government of President Ivan Duque said it sent a strongly-worded protest to the Venezuelan ambassador over what it claimed was a "violation of Colombia's sovereignty" in Norte Santander department on Sunday.

"Two helicopters, identified with the initials of the Bolivarian National Guard and about 30 armed personnel belonging to the Bolivarian National Armed Forces of Venezuela" landed in the border region of Tibu, the foreign ministry said.

The ministry said it sent a note "expressing the strongest protest" to the Venezuelan ambassador in Bogota.

The South American neighbors have locked horns in recent years over similar incidents along their 2,200-kilometer (1,370-mile) border crisscrossed by guerrillas and drug traffickers.

The most recent incident was in November last year and also involved the Tibu region.

Like his predecessor Juan Manuel Santos, Duque has branded Venezuela a "dictatorship" under President Nicolas Maduro.

Earlier this month, Maduro accused Santos of being behind an alleged attempt to assassinate him during a military parade in Caracas.

Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans fleeing the economic crisis in their home country have taken refuge in Colombia, which Maduro has also accused of sheltering his opponents.

Colombia urged Peru and Ecuador to coordinate their immigration policies to deal with an influx of Venezuelan migrants.
Colombia's Immigration Authority states that 567 Venezuelan soldiers have defected to Colombia from Nicolás Maduro's government since February 23, 2019. They were members of Venezuela's Armed Forces and Venezuela's National Police.