CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Saturday his government had broken relations with Colombia and would expel some Colombian diplomatic staff after Colombia assisted the opposition’s efforts to bring humanitarian aid into the country.

“Patience is exhausted, I can’t bare it anymore, we can’t keep putting up with Colombian territory being used for attacks against Venezuela. For that reason, I have decided to break all political and diplomatic relations with Colombia’s fascist government,” Maduro said in a speech.

He said the ambassador and consular staff would have to leave Venezuela within 24 hours. </s> CARACAS, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Satuday his government had broken relations with Colombia and would expel some Colombian diplomatic staff after Colombia assisted the opposition's efforts to bring humanitarian aid into the country.

"Patience is exhausted, I can't bare it anymore, we can't keep putting up with Colombian territory being used for attacks against Venezuela. For that reason, I have decided to break all political and diplomatic relations with Colombia's fascist government," Maduro said in a speech.

He said the ambassador and consular staff would have to leave Venezuela within 24 hours. </s> Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro talks to supporters during a rally in support of the government in Caracas, Venezuela February 23, 2019. REUTERS/Manaure Quintero

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Saturday his government had broken relations with Colombia and would expel some Colombian diplomatic staff after Colombia assisted the opposition’s efforts to bring humanitarian aid into the country.

“Patience is exhausted, I can’t bare it anymore, we can’t keep putting up with Colombian territory being used for attacks against Venezuela. For that reason, I have decided to break all political and diplomatic relations with Colombia’s fascist government,” Maduro said in a speech.

He said the ambassador and consular staff would have to leave Venezuela within 24 hours. </s> On 19 February, the Latin American country’s regional military chief announced the closure of the Venezuelan maritime border with the Dutch Caribbean.

Venezuela will close the border with neighboring island nations, suspend air traffic and revise their diplomatic ties, its Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said Wednesday after the Caribbean island of Curacao agreed to act as a hub for relief aid shipments.

“Venezuela has decided not only to shut the border but also to revise relations with these countries. These measures will be in place until their governments start following and respecting international laws,” she said at a press conference broadcast by the state television.

Earlier in the day, the Reuters news agency reports, citing a regional military commander that Venezuela’s government had reopened its national maritime border with the Dutch Antilles islands following its closure on Tuesday.

This comes after Venezuela’s regional military chief said on Tuesday that he had ordered the closure of the Venezuelan maritime border with the Dutch Antilles islands. The move was made amid Dutch plans to open a logistical hub for humanitarian aid on the island of Curacao, however, the exact reasons behind Caracas’ decision to close the border remain unclear.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro refused to accept US aid that is currently waiting in Colombia, blasting it as a ploy to topple his government.

Venezuela is in the midst of a political crisis, which escalated in late January when Venezuelan opposition parliamentary speaker Juan Guaido declared himself interim president, disputing last year’s re-election of Maduro.

Guaido was recognized by the United States and a number of other countries. At the same time, Russia, China, Mexico, Turkey and Uruguay were among those that voiced their support for Maduro as the country’s legitimately elected president. </s> Colombia’s foreign Minister Carlos Holmes announced Friday that his country is withdrawing from Unasur, the union of South American countries after months of division between member states.

The country suspended its membership in April after months of infighting on the worsening situation in neighboring Venezuela and the succession of Colombian ex-President Ernesto Samper as the South American union’s president.

The bloc was founded in 2008 to promote regional integration and diminish US influence in South America. Political divisions, however, had virtually paralyzed the organization.

Other countries led by conservative governments also suspended their membership, mainly over disagreement on Venezuela, a founding state that has slowly degenerated in a virtual one-party state similar to Cuba.

According to President Ivan Duque, the Unasur membership had become toxic and effectively made Colombia “complicit in the Venezuelan dictatorship.”

Holmes said that other countries who suspended their membership in April could follow suit and withdraw, which would effectively end the continental project that essentially sought regional integration.

“We are consulting with other countries that want to take the same course. In any case, Colombia will withdraw from the constitutive treaty, it is an irreversible policy,”

Since its foundation, the governments of a number of member states have shifted to the right while the socialist-run Venezuela has become increasingly authoritarian.

Resolutions that sought to condemn human rights violations in the oil-rich country were sunk by Venezuela’s allies in the region and countries that depend on free oil distributed by Caracas.

The organization has been without a secretary general since January last year when former Colombian President Ernesto Samper ended his term.

The lack of consensus and leadership has removed “the conditions that allow taking decisions” as one body, former Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin said in April.

Colombia to withdraw from Unasur; South America split over Venezuela was last modified: by </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> Russia has sided with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in his stand-off with opposition leader Juan Guaido, who declared himself interim president late last month. Maduro retains control of state institutions including the military, but most Western countries, including the United States, have recognized Guaido as Venezuela's president.

Venezuela on Wednesday received a shipment of humanitarian aid sent from Russia, including medicine and medical equipment, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported, citing a Russian diplomatic source.

Earlier this week, Maduro had said that Russia was scheduled to deliver 300 tons of humanitarian aid to the country.

"On Wednesday, 300 tons of Russian humanitarian aid will be legally delivered to the international airport of Caracas," Maduro was cited as saying at a meeting with scientists on Monday.

Venezuela had earlier this month blocked a bridge on its border with Colombia to stop trucks carrying U.S. humanitarian aid, including high-protein foods, from entering the country. Venezuelan officials had said that the aid was a U.S. attempt to put pressure on the Maduro regime.

On Monday, British billionaire Richard Branson announced in a video posted on YouTube that he was organizing a charity concert in Cúcuta, Colombia, near the Venezuelan-Colombian border, to raise funds for “much-needed medical help” for Venezuela.

Branson said that Guaidó had asked him to help organize the event, planned for Friday, and said it would include international and regional artists. </s> Colombia’s foreign minister said on Tuesday that Venezuelan helicopters and soldiers illegally crossed the two countries’ border amid ongoing tensions.

In a press release, the Colombian foreign ministry said that two military police helicopters on Sunday dropped some 30 armed soldiers in Tibu, a municipality on the northern half of the country’s 1,300-mile border.

The unannounced cross-border operation was a “violation of the sovereignty of Colombia,” the foreign ministry said.

The alleged incursion in the virtually lawless border region between the two countries is the first since President Ivan Duque took office earlier this month.

At the instruction of the president, the foreign ministry, a letter expressing “the most energetic protest” was sent to Venezuela’s embassy in Bogota.

While this would be the first illegal cross-border operation for Duque, it is by far not the first in recent history.

Former President Juan Manuel Santos on multiple occasions claimed that Venezuelan armed forces entered Colombian territory without permission, often in areas where the countries are separated by shifting rivers.

Alleged incursions like the one on Sunday are particularly sensitive now that tensions between the two countries is high.

The government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has converted the country into a virtual one-party state and has claimed the Colombian government has been involved in plots to either topple or assassinate him.

At the same time, food and medicine shortages in Colombia’s socialist-run neighbor has spurred a mass exodus of Venezuelans to neighboring countries.

Like Venezuela, Colombia has also not taken the exact location of their neighbors’ borders too seriously.

Ecuadorean courts are currently investigating top former military officials from Colombia for a 2008 cross-border bombing raid that killed a prominent Colombian guerrilla leader who was hiding in the jungle on the Ecuadorean side of the border.

was last modified: by </s> Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced Saturday that he is breaking off all political and diplomatic ties with the Colombian government and gave Colombian officials 24 hours to get out of the country.

"My patience is exhausted, I can no longer bear it that the territory of Colombia lends itself to aggression against Venezuela, so I have decided to break off all political and diplomatic relations with the fascist government of Colombia," Maduro told the hundreds of his supporters who were out marching "in defense of the revolution."
Venezuela breaks diplomatic relations with Colombia and expels all of Colombia's diplomats; however, Colombia maintains diplomatic relations with Guaidó's ambassador, Humberto Calderón Berti.