BOGOTÁ, Colombia — Venezuelan migrant Wuendy Villamizar fled Venezuela by foot while seven months pregnant to ensure she gave birth in Colombia.

Her infant son was born healthy at a border hospital earlier this year but has gone without one of the most basic human rights: Citizenship.

That changed Monday when President Iván Duque announced that his government will grant citizenship to more than 24,000 babies like Santiago Josue who were born to Venezuelan parents in Colombia and are at risk of statelessness. </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> Colombia and Peru have agreed to build a joint database to share information and better address the flood of Venezuelan immigrants fleeing violence and a crumbling economy.

The countries, along with Brazil and Ecuador, met in the Colombian capital Bogota this week to discuss the issues each country faced with the wave of refugees that is only likely to increase in the coming months.

“We are sure that the solution is to not close the borders, since that in encouraging the irregularities,” said Christian Kruger, Colombia’s immigration director.

The proposed would better track crisis that has been felt throughout South America and better document details about the refugees’ locations, health, education and what services they have accessed, according to press release by Colombia’s Ministry of Foreign Relations.

By doing so, the statement said, it will allow the countries to better construct polices regarding the immigration, work, safety, health and education of those migrants.

More than 1.6 million Venezuelans have fled their country since 2015, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and thousands more pour over the border each day.

In Colombia, the government has reported around 1 million Venezuelans who have settled across the nation. Peruvian officials say there are more than 400,000 living in the nation.

As the two countries continue talks of the database, they have extended an invitation to other governments in the regions to join them in their effort.

“We must, from the sovereignty of each country, search for strategies that allow us to provide attention and identify these migratory flows and most importantly, to make them an active part of society,” Kruger said.

Colombia and Peru to build joint database on fleeing Venezuelans was last modified: by </s> On an international scale, here is what generosity looks like – and what it can potentially do.

Just before he stepped down as Colombia’s president on Aug. 7, Juan Manuel Santos granted temporary residency permits to 440,000 refugees from Venezuela, doubling the number given in recent years. It was an act of solidarity with innocent people fleeing starvation, violence, and hyperinflation in their country. Since 2015, Colombia has been the largest receiver of Venezuelan refugees – more than 1 million.

The move sparked Mark Green, the head of foreign aid for the United States, to tweet: “The world owes Colombia a debt of gratitude for welcoming Venezuelans fleeing [the] Maduro regime.” Similar statements have come from United Nations officials. A few days later, the US, which itself is the largest humanitarian donor to the refugee crisis, decided to send a Navy hospital ship to Colombia to provide medical aid to the Venezuelans.

Yet the biggest impact of Colombia’s open-arms policy may be in Venezuela, where an estimated 7 to 12 percent of the population has so far left the country, a migration approaching the flows in Syria.

Perhaps embarrassed that neighboring Colombia was widening its welcome mat, President Nicolás Maduro announced Aug. 17 that he would try to solve the country’s economic crisis. He introduced a new currency that knocked five zeros off the value of the old one, hoping to curb an annual inflation rate estimated at 1 million percent. And he also promised to raise the minimum wage – by 34 times.

Venezuela used to be Latin America’s richest country. It also holds the world’s largest known petroleum reserves. Yet years of mismanagement, corruption, and clampdowns on dissent have left it a failed state. The country’s decline, especially in its democracy, really began to impact its neighbors this year with the flow of refugees. “The capacity of the region is overwhelmed,” says one UN official. Ecuador and Peru have started to restrict the entry of Venezuelans. Last week, Brazil sent its military to the border to quell local violence against the refugees.

Colombia’s generous response could be a result of the lessons it learned during its own crisis. During a half-century of civil war that ended in 2016, millions of Colombians were displaced. Part of the peace process includes generous compensation to the war’s victims. Helping Venezuelans may now seem like a natural extension of the compassion shown to its own people.

Efforts to help the refugees can be one way to encourage stronger international action toward restoring democracy in Venezuela. In particular, Colombia’s generosity will create hope for Venezuelans that they are not alone. It lays a moral groundwork for an eventual solution to the biggest crisis in Latin America. </s> A Brazilian federal judge has ordered the country's border with Venezuela to be closed to migrants fleeing that country's economic meltdown, though the frontier has remained open while the government appeals the decision.

Judge Helder Barreto ordered the border closed until the northern state of Roraima can create the "humanitarian" conditions to handle the influx, Reuters reported. State officials told the news agency that more than 500 Venezuelans cross into Roraima on average every day.

The incursion has overwhelmed social services and led to homeless families sleeping in the streets amid rising crime and prostitution, among other concerns. The migration also has triggered an outbreak of measles; many Venezuelan refugees have not been immunized due to the breakdown of the health system there.

As part of his ruling, Barreto ordered the vaccination of all Venezuelans admitted to Brazil. He also suspended a local measure permitting the expulsion of Venezuelans who broke the law, as well as a decree requiring Venezuelan immigrants seeking medical and social services to have a valid passport.

However, he also ordered that the entry of Venezuelan refugees be halted until Roraima has reached an equal number of people entering the state and leaving for other parts of Brazil.

The Brazilian Air Force has flown approximately 820 Venezuelans out of the state's capital, Reuters added.

A border official told the news agency that hundreds of Venezuelan refugees continued to cross the border Monday.

Click for more from Reuters. </s> A Brazilian federal judge has ordered the country’s border with Venezuela to be closed to migrants fleeing that country’s economic meltdown, though the frontier has remained open while the government appeals the decision.

Judge Helder Barreto ordered the border closed until the northern state of Roraima can create the “humanitarian” conditions to handle the influx, Reuters reported. State officials told the news agency that more than 500 Venezuelans cross into Roraima on average every day.

The incursion has overwhelmed social services and led to homeless families sleeping in the streets amid rising crime and prostitution, among other concerns. The migration also has triggered an outbreak of measles; many Venezuelan refugees have not been immunized due to the breakdown of the health system there.

As part of his ruling, Barreto ordered the vaccination of all Venezuelans admitted to Brazil. He also suspended a local measure permitting the expulsion of Venezuelans who broke the law, as well as a decree requiring Venezuelan immigrants seeking medical and social services to have a valid passport.

However, he also ordered that the entry of Venezuelan refugees be halted until Roraima has reached an equal number of people entering the state and leaving for other parts of Brazil.

The Brazilian Air Force has flown approximately 820 Venezuelans out of the state’s capital, Reuters added.

A border official told the news agency that hundreds of Venezuelan refugees continued to cross the border Monday.

Click for more from Reuters. </s> The refugee crisis in Venezuela is growing. A U.N. agency says the number of people fleeing the country is staggering. Most of the people who have left Venezuela remain in Latin America.

The number of people fleeing Venezuela has now exceeded 4 million. That's according to the U.N. Refugee Agency and the International Organization for Migration, which called the pace of the outflow staggering. Here's United Nations special envoy Angelina Jolie talking from the Venezuela-Colombia border on Sunday.

ANGELINA JOLIE: This is a life-and-death situation for millions. UNHCR has received only a fraction of the funds it needs to do even the bare minimum to help them survive.

INSKEEP: OK. Let's remember the geography here. We said she's on the Venezuela-Colombia border. Colombia's the next country west of Venezuela. That's where a lot of people are going. We've heard our colleague Ari Shapiro with a lot of dramatic reporting on Colombian refugees, and now the outflow has increased. So let's get an update from reporter John Otis, who has been reporting for the region, is in Colombia now. Hi there, John.

INSKEEP: What are conditions where you are?

OTIS: Well, you know, up on the Colombia-Venezuela border, that's actually one of the busiest in all of South America. And President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela blocked those border crossings back in February over a dispute with the political opposition. The bridges were blocked with shipping containers, and that forced Venezuelans who were trying to get across to Colombia to go along clandestine footpaths that are quite dangerous 'cause these footpaths, many of them are controlled by drug trafficking groups, and there were sometimes shootouts between them. And what's happening up there on the border, Steve, is that lots of Venezuelans go across to Colombia just for even a few hours 'cause they need to buy food and medicine and other things that they can't get back home.

So there's just a lot of back and forth. Colombia's become quite a lifeline for Venezuela as the crisis gets worse. People need to get across. Even coming across and working odd jobs and, you know, picking up a few dollars - that's enough, once they go back to Venezuela, to live for a few days.

INSKEEP: OK. So some of the regular border crossings have reopened for the moment. People are going back and forth, but some people just go. How are the countries in the region, the neighboring countries, handling millions of people?

OTIS: You know, for the most part, they seem to be doing a pretty good job. They seem to be maintaining kind of an open-door policy. Colombia, especially, because many Colombians crossed over and emigrated to Venezuela back in the '80s and '90s during Colombia's period of horrific drug-fueled violence and guerrilla war. So there's kind of a common understanding between the two countries. Colombia's now home to about 1.3 million Venezuelans. And it's a real mix. You know, you've got highly educated Venezuelans coming across working as university professors and in Colombia's oil industry. You've got construction workers. But, you know, the down and out, you'll find them begging on the streets of Bogota.

Now, the one upside, or one of the upsides of this outward flow is that these Venezuelans are able to, again, find jobs and send money back to their loved ones back in Venezuela who really are depending on U.S. dollars these days to get along as hyperinflation soars in that country.

INSKEEP: I guess that means also that some of the Venezuelans are contributing to the local economies of the countries to which they flee.

OTIS: That's true. But, you know, as this crisis continues, you know, there are concerns about rising xenophobia. Peru, for example, is just putting some new restrictions on Venezuelans coming into their country because they're blaming Venezuelan immigrants for a rise in crime. So we could see more of these kinds of measures as the crisis continues.

INSKEEP: John, thanks for your reporting. </s> RUMICHACA BRIDGE, (Reuters) – Thousands of Venezuelans overwhelmed the Ecuadorean-Colombian border high in the Andean mountains yesterday, as fears of border closings led to a sudden surge in migrants from the ravaged OPEC-member country.

Impoverished Vene-zuelans are fleeing food shortages, hyperinflation, and violent crime in their homeland, often taking days-long bus rides across South America because they cannot afford flights.

Ecuador’s government on Wednesday declared a state of emergency in three provinces due to a jump in Venezuelans who arrived through Colombia. Authorities said up to 4,500 Venezuelans had crossed daily since the weekend, up from around 500 to 1,000 people previously.

Almost a dozen Venezuelans at the Rumichaca bridge, which divides the Ecuadorean-Colombian border, told Reuters they pushed forward their emigration out of fear that the porous Colombian-Venezuelan border, which most migrants cross at the start of their odyssey across South America, could be closed.

“There were rumours that the border with Venezuela was going to be shut and I left early to avoid getting stuck,” said Irene Bravo, 55, sitting on the ground surrounded by big bags as she waited to get her passport stamped by Colombian authorities.

“The situation is unsustainable in Venezuela. Everything is expensive and you cannot afford to eat,” added Bravo, who planned to continue on to Chile with her two sons and extended family.

Around her, tired children slept on suitcases and adults huddled under flimsy blankets to try to ward off the cold mountain temperatures.

Some Venezuelans said they had heard Colombia’s new president, right-wing Ivan Duque, could toughen border crossings, while others said they feared leftist Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro would.

Duque is more hardline than his predecessor, centrist Juan Manuel Santos, but he has not mentioned anything about closing the border and stressed during his inauguration on Tuesday that Colombia had a duty to help its “Venezuelan brothers.”

It was not clear what precipitated the rumour. It was not immediately possible to reach the Colombian government and Venezuela’s Information Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

In the middle of the commotion at the border, musician Jose Ramon Sanchez played the harp, instantly cheering up his fellow Venezuelans who clapped at the sound of the traditional music from the grasslands and shouted “Out with Maduro!”

“Playing the harp helps me calm the pain of having left my family,” said Sanchez, 37, who left Venezuela’s state of Barinas on July 23 and has been performing songs along the way to pay his way to Peru. </s> Brazilian federal judge Helder Barreto has prohibited Venezuelan migrants from crossing the border into Brazil's northern state of Roraima, a spokesman for the regional judiciary said Monday.

Barreto ordered the border closed until the frontier state can create "humanitarian" conditions to receive the massive influx. His ruling only applies to Venezuelans, without affecting other nationalities, according to German news agency DPA.

Read more: Opinion: Venezuela on the verge of imploding

The injunction has yet to go into effect pending an appeal by Brazilian government lawyers. Hundreds of Venezuelans continued to walk across Brazil's northern border, a border official said.

Over the past three years, tens of thousands of Venezuelans have fled their country's economic and political turmoil, migrating to Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Chile and other countries in the region.

The mass migration of Venezuelans into Brazil has overwhelmed social services, causing a humanitarian crisis. Many of them are extremely poor and sleep on the streets or in hostels amid rising crime and prostitution.

Roraima's Governor Suely Campos has requested the closure of the state's border with Venezuela and has repeatedly protested against the presence of the migrants, saying they have brought public services to the brink of collapse. On Thursday, the state government decreed Venezuelans seeking medical or other social services would have to present a valid passport, which many of the migrants do not have.

Barreto ruled that such a measure was "discriminatory" and didn't align with Brazilian laws. He suspended a provision that would allow for the deportation or expulsion of Venezuelan migrants who committed illegal acts. He also ordered the vaccination of migrants admitted to Brazil.

But Barreto ordered the suspension of border crossings from Venezuela until the migrants can be redistributed throughout brazil as quickly as they enter the country.

The Brazilian Air Force began airlifting Venezuelan migrants from Roraima for resettlement in other Brazilian cities in accordance with recommendations by the United Nations refugee agency (UNHRC). However, more than 500 Venezuelans cross into Brazil per day on average, many of whom stay in Roraima because they cannot afford to move elsewhere.

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Colombian authorities deport Venezuelan refugees in the border town of Cúcuta; in response, the Venezuelan government restricts movement of Colombians into the country.