Guaidó: military should disown leader who burns food in front of the hungry – as it happened

We’re going to wrap up the live blog now, thanks for following along.

Our full story about today’s events is here.

Opposition leader Juan Guaidó has tweeted:

“The events of today oblige me to take a decision – to propose formally to the international community that we should keep open all options for the liberation of our homeland, which is fighting and will continue to fight. Hope was not born to die Venezuela!”

We have an update about the number of those injured today.

Civil defense officials in Colombia say at least 285 people have been injured in clashes at border bridge crossings.

Condemnation of Maduro’s government and its decision to block aid shipments into the country has been coming in from countries across Latin America, including Argentina, whose government has just released this statement:

The Argentine Government strongly condemns the actions of the Maduro regime that prevented the entry of humanitarian aid from neighboring countries, aimed at alleviating the dramatic situation in which millions of Venezuelans are currently living. In the same way, it firmly repudiates the repression deployed by the regime’s forces, which caused several deaths and dozens of wounded.

The Argentine Government renews its support to the president-in-charge Juan Guaidó and the support to the efforts that it carries out together with the National Assembly to allow the entry of food and medicines destined to alleviate the suffering that the policies of the Maduro regime have imposed on all Venezuelan people.

The Argentine president, Mauricio Macri, has tweeted in support of Juan Guaidó.

“The situation in which Venezuelans live is dramatic,” wrote Macri. “I want to condemn the repression deployed by Maduro and his actions to prevent the Venezuelan people from receiving humanitarian aid.”

Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, has been tweeting a lot over the last hour, condemning the actions of Maduro, whom Pompeo called a “sick tyrant”.

Pompeo accused Maduro of sending gangs of armed thugs out to attack innocent people, adding that the images of burning trucks of aid are “sickening”.

Here are those tweets:

Venezuelan new channel, VPI TV, have this footage, which they say is of a member of the National Guard who defected tonight.

In the footage the man claims he was given orders to “massacre the people” and that Maduro released prisoners from jails to carry out attacks against the people today.

This is the first we’re hearing of claims like this and the Guardian will be seeking to verify them.

‘How many of you have a sick mother?’ Guaidó appeals to military to leave Maduro

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido said he will meet US Vice President Mike Pence at a meeting Monday of regional diplomats.

The emergency meeting of foreign ministers from the so-called Lima Group of mostly conservative Latin American nations was organized to discuss Venezuela’s crisis. It will take place in Colombia’s capital of Bogota.

Guaido, whom the US and some 50 nations recognize as Venezuela’s rightful leader, spoke from Colombian city of Cucuta alongside Colombian President Ivan Duque after a day of deadly clashes with security forces blocking the entry of humanitarian aid amassed on three of Venezuela’s borders.

While insisting he wouldn’t give up in his fight to deliver the aid, he didn’t ask supporters to continue risking their lives and make another attempt to break the barricades set up by President Nicolas Maduro’s socialist government.

But he did make one more appeal to troops to join the opposition’s fight for power.

“How many of you national guardsmen have a sick mother? How many have kids in school without food,” he said, standing alongside a warehouse where some 200 tons of mostly US-supplied boxes of food and medicine has been stockpiled.

The secretary general of the Organization of American States, Luis Almagro, has been speaking. He calls what has been going on in Venezuela “the worst thing I’ve ever seen in my life”.

Venezuelan journalist Gabriel Bastidas has this translation:

“While the regime denies aid, children and sick are still dying. It’s the worst thing I’ve ever seen in my life. Violent killing and injuring people who moved medicine boxes.

“It demonstrated the savagery and barbarity with which the regime acted to prevent the entry of humanitarian aid. The international community must absolutely respond.”

He also praised those border guards who abandoned their posts and fled into Colombia, saying:

“We particularly value the military who have joined in recognizing Guaidó. That will be essential to regaining democracy.”

Opposition leader Juan Guaidó will be meeting with the Lima Group, which was established in 2017 to find a peaceful end to the Venezuelan crisis, on Monday. Joining them will be US vice-president Mike Pence.

Venezuealan journalist Gabriel Bastidas has this translation of sections of the Colombian president’s speech. We’re working on getting you the full text of his, as well as Guaidó’s speech.

“Today we saw how thousands of citizens mobilized to serve their brethren,” said Iván Duque Márquez, the president of Colombia.

“We have seen the repression sought by all mechanisms to prevent humanitarian aid. This is the opportunity for the whole world to tell the dictator that it is enough, that the end of oppression has come.”

“Faced with the barbaric events that occurred, I asked the Venezuelan volunteers to collect the trucks so as not to expose them to more aggression and to protect the aid.

“Today the world witnessed dozens of Venezuelan soldiers crossing the border to offer their allegiance to President Guaidó.”

He says that on Monday there will be a meeting to. discuss a way forward to end the impasse.

“Today the dictatorship has sealed its moral and diplomatic defeat. It has become clear to the world that as much violence as they try, Venezuela will regain freedom with the strength of ideas and the mobilization of the country.”

The joint press conference held by the president of Colombia, Iván Duque Márquez, the secretary general of the Organization of American States, Luis Almagro, and Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó has begun. Watch live here.

Maduro has posted a video of himself driving through the streets of Caracas, we he describes as “calm” and “quiet”.

“Crossing the streets of Caracas – calm, quiet,” tweeted the president. “I send my greetings and I thank the people of New York for their active solidarity, expressed in the streets, with Venezuela. Peace will prevail!”

He thanks those in New York who participated in solidarity protests on Saturday, in which protesters urged the US government to stay out of Venezuela and lift sanctions against the country.

Opposition leader Juan Guaidó will be giving a press conference in about 20 minutes, alongside the president of Colombia and the secretary general of the Organization of American States. “I ask you all to be attentive,” he says.

Hello everyone, this is Kate Lyons taking over the blog from Vivian Ho. Thanks for following along.

After a day of violence across Venezuela’s border regions in which at least four people were killed, dozens injured, 60 border guards fled into Colombia seeking asylum, and three aid trucks were burned, the country finds itself at something of a stalemate.

Aid still has not reached the people of Venezuela and while the number of border guards leaving their posts has continued to rise through the day, there has not been the mass defection that might have indicated a significant shift in the allegiance of the military.

Neither President Nicolas Maduro nor opposition leader Juan Guaidó are backing down. Maduro, who appeared at a rally early today, has just shared a video showing his supporters marching in the streets in Caracas, remaking on the “impressive force of the people”. Whereas Guaidó has vowed to “stay in the streets until we win our freedom.”

Puerto Rico governor Ricardo Rossello issued a statement on the Venezuelan Navy threatening to open fire on a ship carrying humanitarian aid:

“This is a direct threat against a humanitarian mission being carried out by American citizens,” Rossello said. “This is unacceptable and shameful.”

“I have given instructions that our ship leave the area temporarily in order to ensure the crew’s and passengers’ safety. We have notified our partners in the US government about this serious incident. We are in talks to determine the best course of actino forward.”

Opposition leader Juan Guaidó confirmed earlier reports that a ship carrying humanitarian aid from Puerto Rico received “threat of fire from a Navy frigate.”

As evening fell on Venezuela, opposition leader Juan Guaidó vowed to keep fighting.

“This is just the beginning,” Guaidó wrote on Twitter. “If they thought we were going to tire, they were wrong.”

“We will stay in the streets until we win our freedom,” Guaidó wrote.

The number of defectors continues to rise.

Joe Parkin Daniels reports from Cucuta, Colombia:

Emily Costa reports from Pacaraima, Brazil:

A small number of around 50 demonstrators have thrown rocks and molotov cocktails in the direction of Venezuelan military on the border.

Though none of the projectiles reached the military, the Venezuelan national guard reacted by launching tear gas at the demonstrators.

The state government of the Brazilian border state of Roraima has updated its news on Venezuelan casualties and said that five Venezuelan patients with gunshot wounds were treated in Brazil on Saturday. All five are in serious condition and were first attended in Pacaraima. They are now being moved to the Roraima General Hospital in Boa Vista. The state government had earlier said four Venezuelans had been treated on Saturday.

It said the Roraima General Hospital received nine Venezuelan patients on Friday and named them as Fidel Fernandez, 36, Geber Rivero, 21, Kliver Rivero, 24, Rolando Martinez, 52, Alfredo Perez, 48, Evencio Sosa, 44, Onesimo Fernandez, 48, Lino Benavides and Alger Romero.

Kliver Rivero is in intensive care with gunshot wounds to his thorax and abdomen and he has wounds to his liver and intestine. Rolando Martinez is in the trauma unit in a serious condition and breathing with assistance. Alger Romero was released and the others are considered stable. Two others were treated for lesser injuries in Pacaraima on Friday and released.

Emily Costa reports from Pacaraima, Brazil:

Both aid trucks have left the border and headed back into Pacaraima for what Venezuelan volunteers said were “safety reasons,” following an argument and suspicions over a person taking photos.

Patricia Torres reports from Caracas:

Supporters of president Nicolas Maduro turned out for a rally where the embattled leader denounced the opposition trying to bring humanitarian aid shipments into the country as “traitors” and inveighed against the United States.

“I came to support president Maduro. I think the humanitarian aid is a trick, a strategy to manipulate us. We aren’t in a crisis or at war, we are just going through difficult times,” said Lenny Campo, 38, a housewife from Cúpirain Miranda state. “The opposition wants everything for themselves, and to end the revolution. If the revolution ends, nothing will be the same and everything president Chavez left for us will be undone.”

“I came to demonstrate that we can continue with this revolution. We aren’t going to allow the gringos to come and invade us,” said Aura Zamora, 54, from Acevedo in Miranda state. “We need the aid, but the problem is that the gringos want to use it as an excuse to invade the country, and we won’t allow that. We can solve our problems ourselves, with our president”

Joe Parkin Daniels reports from Cucuta, Colombia:

On the Santander bridge separating Cúcuta and the Venezuelan town of Ureña, gangs loyal to Maduro pelted stones at advancing opposition supporters from atop a truck.

Smoke billowed, while tear gas was launched from the Venezuelan side towards Colombia, causing the crowds to flee in panic. Ten minutes later the opposition supporters advanced and were met with the same response. Rubber bullets also flew from Venezuela towards Colombia and paramedics carried their victims to a first aid tent on the Colombian side of the border.

“I was crossing the bridge when a rubber bullet hit me, said Carlos Juancho, a student from Merida who travelled to help shift the aid across the border, as he kept pressure on a neck wound. “This is how Maduro treats his people.”

Venezuelan forces have fired tear gas at people on the Francisco de Paula Santander bridge between Colombia and Venezuela, according to a Telegraph reporter. “Maduro, you murderer!” one yelled.

Opposition forces have pulled back after meeting fierce resistance when trying to get aid trucks across the border from Colombia over the Simon Bolivar bridge, per journalist Dylan Baddour.

Opposition leader Juan Guaido charges that the Maduro regime has violated international law through its treatment of aid shipments.

“We keep receiving support from the international community, which has been able to see, with its own eyes, how the usurper regime violates the Geneva convention, where it clearly says that destroying humanitarian aid is a crime against humanity,” he said in a tweet.

After Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro declared that he was ending diplomatic relations with Colombia, Colombian vice president Marta Lucia Ramirez shoots back that “Maduro cannot break diplomatic relation that Colombia does not have with him.”

“Our government has not named an ambassador there nor do we recognize Maduro’s ambassador,” she said. Colombia, along with other Latin American countries and the US and Europe, recognizes Juan Guaido as the country’s legitimate president.

“He is simply a dictator who occupies Miraflores by force,” Ramirez wrote.

The number of deserters from Venezuelan security forces is up to 23, Colombian officials tell Reuters.

The defectors include two female officers of the national police, one member of the police Special Actions Force, or FAES, 18 National Guard members, and a driver of an armored car for the National Guard, Colombian immigration told journalist Maibort Petit.

The FAES is the special police unit Nicolas Maduro has used to crush dissent. “I’ve had enough of seeing my people suffering,” William Camacho, the defector from that unit, said in a video posted by Petit. “I’m not going to go against my countrymen.”

US Vice President Mike Pence sent a message of support to Juan Guaido and the forces trying to get humanitarian aid into Venezuela.

Emily Costa reports from Pacaraima, Brazil:

Following reports of as many as four people killed during protests in the Venezuelan town of Santa Elena de Uairén, four Venezuelan indigenous people with gunshot wounds have entered Brazil and been taken to the hospital.

Three are in the border town of Pacaraima and one has been taken to Boa Vista, state capital of Roraima. One had been hit four times.

The non-profit group Foro Penal says that four people have now died in Santa Elena, the Venezuelan town near the border with Brazil.

The group’s director, Alberto Romero, called the situation “extremely critical.”

National Guard troops have been seen opening fire in the town.

Amid the chaos, president Nicolas Maduro is seen dancing on national TV.

Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro is reportedly terminating formal diplomatic ties with Colombia and ordering the expulsion of its diplomatic staff from the country.

A Miami Herald reporter puts the number of defectors from Venezuelan security forces today at at least 14.

Trucks carrying humanitarian aid from Colombia have entered Venezuelan territory, opposition leader Juan Guaido says.

But as at the Brazilian border, a border blockade of Venezuelan forces have stopped them from passing any further.

Guaido also tweeted about female officers in the national police, who were shown on video crying as a protester appealed to them to let aid through, and who the opposition says have since defected.

“They sent women to the front, thinking that we were going to attack them,” he wrote. “And all they accomplished was to show the world the face of Venezuelan mothers, who have the strength of crying the hunger of their children. They are with us now in Cucuta. Welcome to a free Venezuela!”

Emily Costa reports from Pacaraima, Brazil:

Thomas Silva, a representative of Juan Guaidó’s ‘interim government’ in Pacraraima, said the aid would enter Venezuela peacefully and that border guards would let it through.

“It will go through peacefully, we’re waiting for them to let us in,” he said, adding that Venezuelans on the border were waiting for a ‘committee’ coming from Santa Elena de Uirarén on the Venezuelan side of the border by car, on foot, or “any other way” before attempting to cross. “They are the ones negotiating,” he said.

Joe Parkin Daniels reports from Cucuta, Colombia:

Volunteers are attempting to get aid across the Tienditas bridge, which connects Colombia and Venezuela.

“We will advance! We are not afraid,” said Nancy Barreto, speaking from a pickup truck to a group of a thousand volunteers and supporters.

Volunteers waited in the baking sun just inside the Tienditas complex, some carrying white roses. Some organisers had brought flak jackets.

“Everyone feels fear, but from our fear we draw strength,” said Manuel Solarte, a university professor from Caja Seca. “Today is the end of the dictatorship – so can wait a few hours more.”

“I am the voice of every pensioner in Venezuela without the food and medicine we need. And I come in peace, love and God,” said Lucia Kulsky, who stood on the bridge clutching a white rose.

“I want to live in a country with hope, Venezuela isn’t that country under Maduro,” said student Ashley Guerrera, who traveled to the bridge with her friend Genesis Gonzalez this morning.

“Our brothers and sisters need medicine,” Gonzalez said. “We are here to help them get it.”

Patricia Torres reports from anti-government protests in Caracas:

Milagros Ortiz, 45, a doctor who lives in Catia, an area that was a traditional bastion of support for Hugo Chávez, said with tears in her eyes that in the hospital where she works, there wasn’t enough medicine this week for a patient running a fever of 40C (104F).

She was sitting by the border fence of the Carlota air base, but said she wasn’t afraid of the soldiers, she was afraid her patients would keep dying.

“I’m afraid to keep living this nightmare,” she said. We don’t have medicines, we don’t have food, we don’t have security.”

Ortiz said she didn’t blame the soldiers. “They are not responsible, they are getting their orders from people who are corrupt.”

Legislator Manuela Bolivar asked people to stay calm and not to attack the fence around the base. She also told the protesters that if the military ask them to clear the area they should obey because “we don’t want violence, we want peace. Violence is not part of our plan.”

Student Julio Cesar Ramos predicted that military forces would soon join the opposition. “This is a critical moment. There are many of us, and I am sure that they [the soldiers] are going to come over to our side,” he said. “They are young, like me, and I ask them today to join us on the right side of history, and not make themselves responsible for the mistakes of their bosses.”

Andrea De Jesús, 30, an accountant, said her nine-year-old son who has Hunter syndrome has not received treatment in a year. “I’m here because there are so many families, that like mine, need medical help. Children are dying and we need the aid to come into the country now. I would beg the military today to please put their hand on their hearts. This isn’t about politics, it’s about human lives,” she said.

Many of the people marching were dressed in white, or wearing the Venezuelan national colours of red, yellow and blue. They carried banners and placards with messages begging for the passage of humanitarian aid.

They shouted “Yes he can” and “We are doing well”. A huge crowd walked over 2km from Altamira district to the Carlota military airbase.
Five police officers at the outskirts of the rally, who didn’t want to be named, said they didn’t plan to suppress or control the demonstration, but they were worried because they were sure that intelligence operatives were undercover in the crowd.

Emily Costa reports from Pacaraima, Brazil:

Yuretzi Idrogo, a deputy in Venezuela’s national assembly, was on the border at Pacaraima on Saturday. She lives in Manaus, Brazil since going into exile last October, she said, after denouncing cases of children dying of hunger.

“I am here because we need to say to the soldiers that they need to let the aid pass,” she said. “This aid needs to enter today and everything possible will be done so it does enter.”

She said there are four military blockades between the border and the Venezuelan town of Santa Elena de Uairén. “I’m going to stay here helping until it’s necessary and until the aid enters,” she said. “As a deputy I demand that they respect our indigenous people.”

Trucks carrying aid attempted to cross the Tienditas and San Francisco de Paula bridges connecting Colombia with Venezuela and were met with “strong repression,” according to tweets from national assembly member Yanet Fermin.

She said at least six people were injured, including a a child.

Three members of the Venezuelan national police who were seen in a video crying as a protester appealed to them to let humanitarian aid in have now defected, according to National Assembly member Yanet Fermin.

Two Venezuelans injured in a confrontation with soldiers on Friday that killed two people and injured over a dozen are in a serious condition in hospital in Brazil, the government of Roraima state said on Saturday.

Thirteen people crossed the border for hospital treatment – nine were treated at the Roraima general hospital in the state capital of Boa Vista, the government said in a statement, and another four in the border town of Pacaraima who were later released.

Two people were hit by gunfire and killed after indigenous people in Kumarakapay stopped a military convoy heading for the border they believed was aiming to stop aid from entering.

Kleber Perez is in intensive care and has firearm wounds to his thorax and abdomen with multiple wounds to his liver and intestine. Rolando Martinez is sedated and his breathing is being assisted. Lino Benavides is under observation with a moderate cranial trauma, five remain hospitalised and are in stable condition and one was released. Four other people were treated in Pacaraima and released, the state government said in a statement.

Opposition leader Juan Guaidó met with the Venezuelan national guard members who defected today, according to a photo posted by national assembly member Freddy Guevara.

Guevara called them “military patriots” who “put themselves on the side of the people and the constitution”. “Brothers in the armed forces, follow the example of your colleagues, Venezeula is waiting for you,” he said in a tweet.

Video from CNN shows a member of the Venezuelan national police silently crying as a volunteer appeals to her to let aid shipments in from Colombia.

“Think about your family, your children, every one of your relatives that can’t get food,” the man tells the female officers. “You are part of history. We are all one Venezuela...Do it for your children, for the sick, for all the children who are dying in the hospital this very day.”

Video shows Venezuelan security forces using tear gas against volunteers and opposition politicians who are trying to get the aid shipments across the border from Colombia, on the Simon Bolivar bridge.

Venezuelans near the border with Brazil are holding flags as they await the hoped-for arrival of trucks carrying food and medicine.

Additional members of the Venezuelan armed forces are defecting on the Simon Bolivar bridge, which connects Venezuela and Colombia.

Marchers there approaching the border have been met with tear gas from security forces, journalist Dylan Baddour reports.

US national security adviser John Bolton is urging the Venezuelan military to allow aid shipments to enter the country.

The US, European and Latin American countries have recognized Juan Guaidó as the president of Venezuela.

“President Guaido is personally leading the effort to bring aid to Venezuelan people. The military has a chance to protect and assist the people of Venezuela, not Maduro and a band of thieves,” Bolton said in a tweet, accompanied by a photo of Guaidó aboard an aid truck. “Choose the road of democracy.”

Emily Costa reports from Pacaraima, Brazil:

Victor Curvelo, 35, is the Venezuelan driver of one of the aid trucks parked at the Brazil-Venezuela border and lives in nearby Santa Elena de Uairén – a town just inside Venezuela.

He said he spent two hours trying to fix a tire on route with the help of various people, which caused his delay arriving from Roraima state capital Boa Vista. He said he is a volunteer and is not being paid and entered Brazil on Friday with the truck via a clandestine route after trying to get past the blockade on the border. “I did it because I want to help and every Venezuelan has to,” he said.

Júris Cabrero, 57, who works for the city government in Santa Elena de Uairén, is another volunteer planning to help the aid truck get through. “We are waiting for people to arrive in Santa Elena to receive the aid. People are coming walking, by car, by bicycle,” he said. “We hope many people come here to accompany us and take the aid to the city. The trucks are in Venezuelan territory but we have yet to cross the blockades.”

The convoy of trucks carrying humanitarian aid to Venezuela from Colombia will be unloaded on the Colombian side of the Simón Bolívar bridge and transported by human chain across the border, Colombia’s migration agency told Reuters.

At the bridge, José Manuel Olivares urged military members to allow aid to cross. “We are going to get through. This is bigger than you and me, it’s the health and the live of millions,” he said, according to the New York Times. “The trucks are coming, and we are getting in.”

Armed gangs in San Antonio, Venezuela attacked journalists from the Venezuelan TV network Venevision, according to the national press workers’ union.

Journalist Marine Glod and her cameraman Orlando Uribe were accosted and their camera was taken from them, the group said in a tweet.

Thousands of protesters are in the streets in Caracas around La Carlota military airport, calling for humanitarian aid to be allowed to enter the country.

Leading media outlets on the Brazilian left have been rallying around the Venezuelan government on Saturday, following the example of Gleisi Hoffmann, president of the Workers’ party founded by jailed former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who attended Nicolás Maduro’s inauguration in January. “We recognise the popular vote by which Nicolás Maduro was elected,” Hoffman said at the time.

Brazilian leftist sites took a similar line, arguing that the humanitarian aid effort is a “Trojan horse” for US interests.

On Saturday morning Mídia Ninja, a widely-read, leftist news network with nearly half a million twitter followers, tweeted a Facebook post by Renato Janine Ribeiro – a professor of ethics and political philosophy at the University of São Paulo and briefly education minister under Workers’ party president Dilma Rousseff – with the instruction: “Reflect!”

“War with Venezuela seems imminent. Today is an invasion attempt under the pretext of humanitarian aid. Everybody knows I criticise Maduro. But that’s a long way from backing Trumpo’s invasion with the support of his South American servers. Because NONE of the so-called humanitarian invasions carried out by the USA improved the country invaded: Somalia, Libya, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan,” he posted. “And that’s without citing practically all the Latin American countries, which at one point it (the US) attacked.”

Leftist media network Jornalistas Livres – or Free Journalists – posted a similar line from Caracas on its Facebook site, which has over a million followers, and linked to a video attacking the aid.

“HUMANITARIAN AID TO VENEZUELA IS A TROJAN HORSE,” it said. “Today, 23 of February, is the day when the coup monger Juan Guaidó, who declared himself president of the republic, marked for ‘humanitarian aid’ to forcibly enter Venezuela. It’s worth remembering that if the USA really wanted to help Venezuela, it would be enough to unblock the accounts of the government and the state oil company PDVSA, because 95 percent of the government’s income depends on money from oil exports.”

The Facebook page of leftist site O Cafezinho (The Little Coffee), which has 492,000 followers, posted a video on Saturday from a vegetable market in Caracas with produce visible on the stalls. “This is a traditional market that happens here in Caracas. The people are on the street, doing their shopping, and life goes on as normal,” said reporter Caio Clímaco. “Worth remembering that the war only interests the United States and the Venezuelan opposition.” He did not interview anybody in the market.

DMC (Diario do Centro do Mundo – Diary from the Centre of the World), another independent leftist site - shared a timeline of what described as increasing involvement by the United States in Venezuelan affairs in 2019. The piece was headlined: “How the USA and the Lima Group turned Venezuela into a barrel of gunpowder.”

Emily Costa reports from the Venezuela-Brazil border:

Although a truck carrying aid has technically crossed onto Venezuelan territory, it is on the Brazilian side of a border blockade.

The truck has not passed customs, and remains blocked by a blockade of Venezuelan national guard. A second truck has also arrived and parked next to the first one in the border area.

As aid convoys departed from Colombia, Colombian president Iván Duque has demanded the supplies be allowed to enter.

“We demand that it be permitted to pass in a peaceful manner into Venezuelan territory for the benefit of those who need it,” he said, according to video posted by a journalist, adding that to impede the shipment would be an offense against human rights and could constitute a “crime” under human rights law.

If the aid is denied entry, he said, “the usurper Nicolás Maduro will be responsible for any act of violence”.

Hillary Clinton is urging Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro to allow humanitarian aid to enter the country peacefully.

“People are in need of life-saving medicines, children are subsisting on one meal a day, and a peaceful delivery of food and supplies is to the benefit of all,” the former US secretary of state and 2016 presidential candidate said in a tweet.

Opposition leader Juan Guaidó is guaranteeing amnesty to members of the military and security forces who defect, according to video posted by journalist Mariana Reyes.

Protesters along Venezuela’s border with Colombia have stolen a red city bus and set it on fire to express outrage over thwarted humanitarian aid deliveries, the Associated Press reports:

Flames from the bus blaze in the border town of Urena also caused nearby power lines to spark.

Protests broke out early in the day as opposition leader Juan Guaidó vowed to move in emergency food and medicine from the United States over objections from President Nicolaás Maduro.

But Guaidó and other opposition leaders showed no immediate signs of being able to get the aid from a warehouse in Cúcuta, Colombia to Venezuela.

A demonstrator in Caracas tells VPI TV that police there have also deployed tear gas against marchers, telling them that they didn’t have a permit to march.

Clashes have intensified in Urena, on the Venezuelan side of the border with Colombia. Venezuela’s national guard fired tear gas on residents clearing a barricaded border bridge between Venezuela and Colombia.

A military outpost near the Venezuela-Brazil border has been taken over by a pro-regime militia, according to VPI TV. Members of the anti-regime national assembly are inside.

Anggy Polanco reports from Tachira, Venezuela on the “Women in White” who have been leading protests at the border with Colombia:

Venezuela has closed the border with Colombia before. One closure lasted for nearly a year, until the blockade was broken by a newly organised group of protesters known as “the women in white”.

They have grown into a powerful force in Tachira state, and are back at the front of border protests on Saturday, forming a human chain to get food and medicines stockpiled by the opposition into Venezuela, in defiance of a government ban.

“This aid must cross,” said Lucero Valero, 37, an accountant currently working as a manicurist, and one of the main leaders of the movement.

The women first came together over frustration over shortages of medicine, food and basic hygiene and cleaning products, easily available in Colombia but already scarce and expensive in Venezuela.

“It began because one woman needed a prescription that she couldn’t find anywhere, and that led to our organisation,” said Valero, who joined a group of around 80 women at the border in late June 2016.

They were turned away by the military on that attempt, but instead of being discouraged persuaded 700 women, all dressed in white, to join a second attempt on 5 July.

This time they succeed in breaking through two military cordons on the San Francisco international bridge, and reached Colombia so they could buy what they needed.

Claudia Perez was key to the success of that protest. Her husband had been stranded on the Colombian side of the border when it closed, and her two daughters, then three- and 15-years-old, were with her in Venezuela.

She took her two girls along to the bridge and told her youngest to remove the barrier blocking the crossing, while she pleaded with soldiers, telling them that her daughters didn’t have milk and she was on her period and needed sanitary supplies.

The commander of the military blockade eventually let her through, and after that the rest of the group managed to push forward, heading to Colombia.

“It really touched the hearts of the soldiers, there was no aggression. The strategy was to talk to them as mother and daughter,” Perez remembers. “No one believed we could do it, but we succeed.”

Valero says that today the group is more than 1000 strong, and includes women of all ages and backgrounds, from housewives to professionals, and across the political spectrum. Some are even Chavistas who supported former president Hugo Chávez but are frustrated they can no longer get daily necessities.

The group is focused on helping families meet their daily needs and aims to stay away from political movements. They were attacked as black-marketeers by a former regional governor, but have also refused to wear T-shirts with the face of an opposition leader.

Although it doesn’t currently have any official status, they hope to establish it a charity in future, with a focus on the reconstruction of Venezuela and help for those who need it.

“We want a return to the beautiful Venezuela we knew, where he could get what we needed without having to cross the border.”

Emily Costa reports from Pacaraima, Brazil:

Maria Belandria, Juan Guaidó’s ‘ambassador’ to Brazil, recognised by the Brazilian government as the country’s official representative here, went to the border after Saturday morning’s press conference and talked to some of the Venezuelans gathered there.

“This aid has to arrive. We have Venezuelans waiting for this aid. These [soldiers] have to put their hands on their hearts because this aid goes to them too,” she said. “We hope the guards open up, as happened in Colombia. This is the hope.”

In Urena, on the Venezuelan side of the border with Colombia, guardsmen used tear gas to repel marchers from Venezuela’s Women in White, a religious group, according to Bloomberg News.

The protesters were rallying people to a border barricade.

Three members of the Venezeulan security forces have deserted on the Simón Bolívar bridge, which connects Venezuela with Colombia, the Spectator reports.

A sergeant with the Venezuelan police who deserted said many other members of the security forces oppose the government, but are too afraid to leave.

“There is fear, because there you cant talk, you cant say anything against the government,” he said. “I had the courage that many of my colleagues have not had.”

The man said he had been thinking about his decision for days. “It wasn’t something I decided overnight,” he said.

He called on other members of the security forces to join him, saying that millions of Venezuelans are pitted against a small circle of loyalists to Maduro.

At a press conference in the border town of Pacaraima on Saturday morning, Brazil’s foreign minister said the effort to transport aid into Venezuela was well planned.

“This is not an improvised thing. It happened very quickly but it is totally professional,” he said, adding that he hoped the aid effort would continue.

“Brazil is ready to continue with this cooperation, as well as the United States and the Lima Group. We want this to be the first movement,” he said, referring to a group of Latin American countries that have backed the Venezuelan opposition. “We continue hoping that China and Russia and other countries become aware.”

Seated beside him, Maria Belandria, appointed by Guaidó as “ambassador” to Brazil, said they wanted the aid to enter Venezuela and wanted to send a “greeting to the companions who are on the other side of the border”.

In the early hours of Saturday morning she tweeted a video alongside Araújo – who also features on her Twitter profile photo – and US charge d’affaires William Popp, standing in a warehouse in Boa Vista in front of sacks of supplies. “We are here with more than 200 tons of medicine and food. Thanks to Brazil, thanks to the United States,” she said.

Two trucks left Boa Vista, capital of this northernmost state of Roraima, early on Saturday under escort but so far just one has arrived in the border town. The other burst a tire while on route and is due this morning. The first truck got close to the border but then turned around. “There are many people here,” said the Guardian’s Emily Costa in Pacaraima. She said the truck “moved close to the border, then turned around and went back. Everyone thought it would enter.”

The trucks are carrying first aid kits, rice and powdered milk, the G1 site reported. The border remains closed.

Protests are underway on the Venezuelan side of the border with Colombia, in the city of Urena. Protesters stormed a school occupied by a government militia, according to a New York Times reporter.

Some of the militia members joined forces with the protesters. One militia member was seriously injured after falling while trying to escape. A peaceful march was planned in an attempt to diffuse tensions.

Joe Parkin Daniels reports from Cucuta, Colombia:

Venezuelans have been arriving in the Colombian border town of Cucuta to help shift aid across the border

Lizmar Vergara, 22, who lives in Caja Seca, arrived yesterday. “I’m here for the freedom of our country. It’s the most precious, the most beautiful thing. Venezuela is magical and I will never leave so I’m here for its future,” she said. “I’m not scared because when they take your bravery they take your freedom. If they shoot at us we carry on, the freedom of Venezuela demands it.”

“You smell that morning air? That is the smell of freedom,” said Nancy Barreto, an activist from from Portuguesa state. She crossed the border yesterday to help shift aid across.

Hundreds slept outside Friday night, without tents, and sang the national anthem as dawn broke

Some opposition members have gathered at the Simón Bolívar bridge, which connects Colombia with Venezuela, chanting: “Libertad, libertad.”

The first trucks have arrived in Pacaraima, on the Brazilian side of the border, carrying aid meant to cross over into Venezuela.

Brazil’s foreign minister tweeted a photo with Juan Guaidó from the aid concert in Cucuta, Colombia, Friday night.

“Still in Cúcuta, Colombia, with the Interim President of Venezuela, Juan Guaidó, courageous leader of the democratic transition. Guaidó sent greetings and his effusive thanks to President Bolsonaro and to Brazil for the support for a free Venezuela,” he wrote.

Here’s a dispatch from Emily Costa, who is in Pacaraima on the Brazilian side of the border:

Even with the border between Venezuela and Brazil closed since Thursday night on the orders of Nicolás Maduro, Venezuelans have continued to cross into Brazil in the Northern state of Roraima, walking for hours along clandestine trails.

One group of seven people, including two children, arrived on Friday night at around 7pm, after walking for two hours.

“We got a taxi to the trail and then we started walking,” said Antonio Isea, 33, an electrical engineer from Barquisimeto. “We couldn’t stay there, we had to get to the end of it, it didn’t matter.”

Both he and Maria Eugenia Sosa, 34, another electrical engineer from Caracas, were headed for Argentina.

“We were tired but we had to keep going because we already have tickets to carry on the journey,” she said.

The group were waiting to register with the Brazilian authorities on Saturday morning. Venezuelans entering said security has been enforced and there are more national guard securing the border and even guarding these secret routes.

“I was scared. I had never been through anything like this in my life,” said Clenni Morales, 32, an administrator from Puerto Ordaz who was carrying her five-year-old daughter.

Jonas Broer, 33, an industrial engineer traveling with his son of five said he was also scared. “I walked a little and felt safer,” he said.

Venezuelans have begun gathering on the Brazilian side of the border in Pacaraima, holding placards made out of cardboard, ready to help. Maritz Caña, 46, was among them. She is unemployed and used to live in Ciudad Bolívar but migrated to Pacaraima a year ago because of the crisis.

“I want to face the struggle for Venezuela, to return to my country,” she said. “I want everything to happen peacefully. I am ready to go walking and carry the aid to the other side. We want the aid to enter, for the people who are dying from hunger, from the lack of medicine. All of us need this.”