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> Clashes erupted between protesters and members of the Venezuelan National Guard at the Colombia-Venezuela border on February 24, local media said. The Venezuelan government had ordered the closure of the border to prevent the entry of humanitarian aid, El Nuevo Herald reported. At least two people were killed and dozens wounded in border clashes on February 23, Colombian media reported. Footage here was captured by local reporter Gabriela Gonzalez and shows protesters on a bridge at the border between the towns of Ureña, Venezuela, and Cúcuta, Colombia, on February 24. Debris and a damaged vehicle are seen. Credit: Gabriela Gonzalez via Storyful </s> The Venezuelan National Guard (GNB) clashed with citizens in Urena, Venezuela, on the border with Colombia.

Protesters threw projectiles at the armed forces, who replied by firing in their directions.

The armed forces closed a road to control the border and prevent humanitarian aid, which has been stockpiled for days on the Colombian side of the border, to enter Venezuela.

The aid has been sent by Colombia and the US to help Venezuelan citizens, who are suffering from widespread shortages of food and medicine caused by an economic crisis.

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro denies that the country is economically struggling and has refused that aid crosses the border into Venezuela, shutting the country's border with Brazil and blocking the border with Colombia with shipping containers. </s> Opposition lawmakers from the southeastern Venezuelan state of Bolivar on Friday said a woman was killed during a clash between soldiers and members of an indigenous community that backs a plan to deliver international humanitarian aid to the crisis-racked country.

The clash in Bolivar left at least 15 people with gunshot wounds, three of whom were seriously injured, legislators Americo de Grazia and Angel Medina said on Twitter.

In statements to online channel VIVOplay, De Grazia said three people wounded in the clash were taken to a hospital in the town of Santa Elena de Uairen, near the border with Brazil and Guyana.

He said the clashes began on Thursday after leftist President Nicolas Maduro ordered the closure of Venezuela's border with Brazil as part of a bid to block aid shipments.

The dead woman was identified as Zoraida Rodriguez, a seller of empanadas who was in the area where the clash occurred - the community of Kumaracupay. All of those injured were men.

Maduro refuses to accept humanitarian aid that the opposition says will enter the country starting Saturday, saying that the deliveries of basic supplies are a ruse and a prelude to a planned military invasion.

He also blames Venezuela's problems on US-led economic warfare targeting his leftist government.

On Thursday, Maduro ordered the closure of Venezuela's border with Brazil and with the Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao as part of a bid to block the aid deliveries.

He also said he was considering closing Venezuela's border with Colombia to prevent aid stockpiled in Cucuta, Colombia, from crossing the frontier.

But Juan Guaido, the speaker of Venezuela's opposition-led National Assembly and self-proclaimed interim president, later ordered the border with Brazil to remain open.

Guaido - who says Maduro's May 2018 re-election victory in balloting boycotted by the opposition was illegitimate - also said Venezuela would maintain diplomatic relations with the islands off the country's coast.

Separately, a group of around 15 Venezuelan lawmakers traveling in a convoy of buses to that nation's border with Colombia were attacked early Friday morning by large rocks, one of which struck a driver in the head, the National Assembly said.

The legislators were heading to the border to coordinate the delivery of international humanitarian aid from Cucuta, Colombia, to Venezuela, an oil-rich nation that is beset by severe food and medicine shortages and hyperinflation.

"The caravan of lawmakers traveling to the city of San Cristobal Tachira was attacked by two blunt objects near Guanare, (the capital of) Portuguesa state. One of (the objects) seriously injured (a) driver," the legislature, which uploaded a photo of a shattered bus window, said on Twitter.

An opposition lawmaker riding on one of the buses, Mariela Magallanes, told EFE that a driver was struck by a rock and had to be taken to a hospital for treatment.

"We took him to a health center, Araure (a town in Portuguesa), but there were no supplies to treat him, not even for first aid; we had to take him to a private health center," where he received five stitches, she said.

The lawmakers, who left Caracas early Thursday on a trip to the border that typically takes 12 hours, decided to stop overnight for safety reasons and then resumed their trip early Friday.

The caravan, which was initially thought to be transporting Guaido, had earlier been stopped on two occasions by soldiers in the states of Carabobo and Cojedes.

Opposition leaders told EFE Thursday that Guaido was already at the Venezuela-Colombia border and waiting for his legislative colleagues to arrive. </s> CARACAS, Venezuela — The political showdown convulsing Venezuela escalated into deadly violence at the border with Brazil on Friday, as security forces fired on a group of indigenous Venezuelans protesting the government’s determination to block aid deliveries from outside the country.

Witnesses and local officials reported the confrontation a day after President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, facing the biggest challenge of his political career, ordered all crossings at the Brazil border closed.

At least two civilians were killed and more than a dozen wounded in the confrontation with security forces in the Gran Sabana area, along Venezuela’s southeast border with Brazil, according to Américo de Grazia, an opposition lawmaker from the state of Bolívar. The Gran Sabana area is inhabited by the Pemón, an indigenous community.

The Venezuelans were protesting the government’s decision to halt all unauthorized imports of emergency food and medical aid into Venezuela, which is suffering increasingly severe shortages. The opposition has vowed to deliver tons of donated humanitarian aid on Saturday, even against Mr. Maduro’s orders. </s> SAO PAULO — Brazilian authorities say residents of the border town of Pacaraima attacked Venezuelan immigrants after a local storeowner was robbed, stabbed and beaten in an attack blamed on four immigrants.

Pacaraima, in the northern jungle state of Roraima, is a major border crossing between Brazil and Venezuela.

After a rally held Saturday to protest the attack against the storeowner, groups of residents roamed the town hurling rocks at the immigrants and setting fire to their belongings.

Police said the storeowner, who was beaten and robbed on Friday night, has been hospitalized and is in stable condition.

Fleeing the economic and political turmoil in their country, tens of thousands of Venezuelans have crossed the border into Brazil over the past few years. </s> Injured demonstrators take cover at the Colombian border

Injured demonstrators take cover at the Colombian border

AT LEAST TWO people have died after an attempt to get humanitarian aid into Venezuela descended into deadly chaos as President Nicolas Maduro’s security forces fired on demonstrators.

The clashes with security forces left more than 300 people wounded at various border crossings.

The country is gripped by a humanitarian crisis that has seen poverty soar during a prolonged recession and hyperinflation.

Despite a blockade by Maduro, opposition leader Juan Guaido had set yesterday as a deadline for the delivery of food and medical aid stockpiled in Colombia and Brazil. Aid is also being held on the Caribbean island of Curacao.

Humanitarian aid has become the centerpiece of the standoff between Maduro and Guaido, the 35-year-old leader of Venezuela’s National Assembly who declared himself interim president exactly one month ago.

Demonstrators throw stones at the international bridge at Cucuta Source: Rafael Hernandez/dpa via PA Images

Since dawn, protesters in the border towns of Urena and San Antonio were held at bay by the Venezuelan National Guard firing tear gas and rubber bullets.

Gunshots could be heard in the streets of Urena during hours of rioting.

Civil defence officials in Colombia said at least 285 people had been injured in clashes at border bridge crossings. Colombia also ordered aid trucks to return from the border after the violence.

Most were Venezuelan nationals who were trying to cross with aid parcels when they were pushed back by Venezuelan forces.

The most serious incident came hundreds of kilometres away, at a crossing point on the southern border with Brazil where the killings took place. A 14-year-old boy was among those killed.

Another 31 people were wounded when troops blocking the entry of aid opened fire on civilians hoping to collect it, according to rights group Foro Penal.

Officers of the Venezuela's Bolivarian National Police take cover behind their shields, from a shower of rocks Source: Fernando Vergara via PA Images

Guaido, who was in Cucuta, Colombia coordinating the aid operation, told reporters:

Maduro’s supporters set on fire two trucks loaded with aid driven through barricades on a border bridge.

Another two trucks carrying aid sent by Brazil to Venezuela returned to a Brazilian city after Venezuelan troops barred them from crossing for several hours.

Demonstrators push a bus that was torched during clashes with the Bolivarian National Guard in Urena, Venezuela Source: AP/PA Images

A number of National Guard troops took advantage of the chaos and abandoned their posts to cross into Colombia.

At least 60 members of the armed forces had deserted the “Maduro dictatorship” by last night, according to Colombia’s immigration service.

Guaido, who has been recognised as interim leader by more than 50 countries, said they would be welcomed and not treated as traitors.

Yesterday, Guaido formally launched a long-planned distribution operation at a warehouse at the Tienditas border bridge in Cucuta.

Guaido had vowed humanitarian aid would enter his country despite the blockade.

Juan Guaido speaking at an event on Wednesday Source: Boris Vergara/dpa via PA Images

Socialist leader Maduro has rejected the aid, which he’s dismissed as a show and pretext for a US invasion.

Angered by Colombia’s support for Guaido, Maduro announced Venezuela was severing diplomatic ties with Bogota, and gave Colombian diplomats 24 hours to leave the country.

He told a rally of his supporters in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas:

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said the US “will take action” as be condemned the violence.

As many as 300,000 Venezuelans are in dire need of food and medicine after years of shortages and malnutrition, according to Guaido, who has accused Maduro of rigging his re-election and is demanding a new vote. </s> Unrest in Venezuela is intensifying at border crossings with Colombia after embattled President Nicolas Maduro declared the borders with both Colombia and Brazil closed late this week, and after violence at a town near the border with Brazil left two dead and 17 injured when national guard soldiers opened fire on a group of civilians attempting to keep open a segment of the southern border with Brazil for deliveries of humanitarian aid.

On Saturday CNN crews filmed confrontations between protesters and Venezuela's National Guard at Ureña near Colombia over demands of workers to cross into the neighboring country to work.

"We want to work!" protesters chanted before being dispersed by tear gas and rubber bullets, after which the crowd hurled stones at the soldiers. Some among the crowed tried to dismantle a metal barrier blocking the Simon Bolivar international bridge, one of three major cross-border bridges near Urena, one of which has never been opened and was used by the US administration to claim Maduro had blockaded the country against outside aid.

It's also at this location that three members of Venezuela’s Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) defected to the Colombian side on Saturday morning, later confirmed by Colombian authorities, but condemned by Caracas as an act orchestrated and staged by the opposition.

Tensions appear to be coming to head this weekend as previously US-backed Juan Guaido promised to personally lead caravans to ensure aid is brought in from both Colombia and Brazil, in order to undermine and otherthrow the Maduro government.

Footage emerged on Saturday which appears to confirm that "Interim President" Guaido is present at the Tienditas International Bridge which connects Tachira, Venezuela with Norte de Santander, Colombia.

Guaido is vowing to break the border blockade by personally entering Venezuela with an aid convoy.

He's reportedly there with with Colombian president, Iván Duque and President of Chile, Sebastián Piñera — all of which are promising to facilitate the entry of aid.

Meanwhile as unrest at multiple border towns in Venezuela grows, Maduro called on Venezuelans to "mobilize" Saturday.

"Let's all take to the streets to defend our independence with conscience and joy," Maduro said via his official Twitter account.

This further comes a day after British billionaire Richard Branson sponsored a Live Aid-inspired show in Cucuta, Colombia, involving popular Latin American singers and appearances by the presidents of Colombia, Chile, and Paraguay.

Guaido himself also made a surprise appearance at the end of the concert in defiance of a ban on him leaving Venezuela.

According to the AP, Guaido may have traveled across the border on a Colombian air force helicopter:

Last week, Guaido warned that Maduro had until February 23 to allow aid into the country, which in the US was echoed by Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who told Axios on Wednesday that Saturday could ultimately decide the fate of Maduro as the standoff over aid comes to a head, given the opposition is ready to force the issue in as visible way as possible.

The provocative actions to undermine Maduro's power have been acknowledged as just that by the opposition, who've recently openly stated that the "humanitarian channel" is a direct political jab at Caracas. Though the tons of much needed aid, including food and medicine supplies, is reportedly piling up along border points especially in Colombia, it's anything but merely "benevolent" - the opposition acknowledges.

"The impact of the humanitarian aid is highly political," Juan Miguel Matheus, an MP for the opposition told CNN earlier this week. "Our first and primary goal is to provide relief for the Venezuelan population, but after that, with this move we want to checkmate Maduro."

"If the aid gets in, Maduro is shown to have lost control of the situation; if it doesn't get in, we show that Maduro doesn't care for the suffering of the people," he added.

The spotlight also remains this weekend on Cucuta, where US aid shipments are being delivered via US Air Force planes and staged for delivery. Meanwhile national security adviser John Bolton has canceled a planned trip to South Korea to "focus on events in Venezuela." </s> MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Clashes between rioting prisoners and security forces killed 37 inmates Wednesday in the southern Venezuelan state of Amazonas, the regional governor said.

Gov. Liborio Guarulla said the “massacre” at a prison in the town of Puerto Ayacucho also wounded four inmates, while one managed to escape. Sixty-one prisoners were transferred to other facilities.

The office of Venezuela’s prosecutor general confirmed that an inquiry had been opened into the deaths of inmates. It said 14 officials were injured during the prison violence.
Venezuelan people clash with the Venezuelan National Guard on the Venezuela's border with Colombia and Brazil. Three people have died in southern Bolívar State.