BOGOTA/CARACAS, (Reuters) – Venezuela has stepped up deportations of Colombians, in some cases separating children from their parents, since President Nicolas Maduro ordered the closure of two border crossings last week, Colombia’s migration office said yesterday.
Maduro closed the crossings after a shootout between smugglers and troops left three soldiers wounded. He later declared a 60-day state of emergency in five border municipalities and extended the border closing indefinitely.
Since the border crossings were closed last week, 612 adult Colom-bians have been deported and 139 minors have been repatriated, sometimes being separated from their parents. Because children cannot legally be deported, authorities describe their movements as repatriation.
Expulsions, deportations and repatriations of Colombians from Venezuela have more than doubled this year to 3,800, officials from Migration Colombia told Reuters.
“I want to reiterate that dialogue and diplomacy, especially in moments like these, is the most responsible and recommended way to alleviate the situation of our compatriots,” Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said on Monday.
Speaking last evening, Maduro blamed Colombian paramilitaries, smugglers and former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe for many of crisis-hit Venezuela’s woes.
The country suffers shortages of basic goods, soaring inflation and the world’s second highest murder rate, according to U.N. data.
The porous 2,219-kilometer (1,379-mile) border shared by the two countries is frequently traversed by smugglers moving price-fixed goods from Venezuela to Colombia for profit, as well as illegal armed groups.
“We’re victims of the capitalist model, of paramilitaries and the Colombian right,” said Maduro in a two-hour televised speech.
Though most economists blame chronic shortages on strict currency controls that crimp imports, Maduro alleges right-ring foes, including ones in neighboring Colombia, are seeking to sabotage his leftist government.
Maduro said 5.6 million Colombians live in Venezuela.
