On the Colombian border bridge, Venezuelans shuttle between hope and fear

Natalia Maldonado (30) walks with two small suitcases towards the Simón Bolívar Bridge to cross. She wants to go back to Venezuela, back home. “I was visiting family for the holidays [de Colombiaanse hoofdstad] Bogotá when it was bombed. I watched the whole invasion on TikTok and then decided I wanted to get back to be with my family soon. I am very worried about them,” said Maldonado, who is negotiating with a taxi driver for a price to drive home via the bridge.

This Sunday afternoon it is a lot quieter at the border between Venezuela and Colombia than the day before, when Venezuelans were startled by a US military attack and the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores. Venezuelans immediately moved to the border, sometimes on a whim, to be on the safe side.

In the evening, the Venezuelan community in the Colombian border town of Cúcuta celebrated and flew the yellow-blue-red Venezuelan flags. Reinforcements have now been sent to the border by order of Colombian President Gustavo Petro to maintain peace. There are three large army vehicles with soldiers at a fence in front of the migration office at the border bridge.

Saleswoman Lize Martins (52) sits on the sidewalk and looks at the uniformed soldiers who are heavily armed and stand straight next to their vehicles with straight faces. “I think there will be more bombings if it turns out that the regime does not fall as quickly as the Americans had hoped,” says the Venezuelan. “Maduro is one, but you have to deal with so many people, with an entire system that has been in power for years.”

Of course we want to get rid of Maduro, but not in this way

Martins lives on the Venezuelan side of the border in San Antonio, from where she crosses every day with her cart full of popsicles, chips and chocolate to earn some money in Colombia. She followed the bombings in Caracas on television. “Instead of going to war, they should sit together and talk like adults. Because that only kills people. Of course we want to get rid of Maduro, but not like this, a war cannot be the solution,” she believes.

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For a quarter of a century chavismo

The National Assembly will meet in the capital Caracas on Monday and Vice President Delcy Rodríguez will be installed as the new president. Her arrested predecessor Maduro and his wife will be brought before a judge in New York in the afternoon, where they will stand trial on suspicion of drug trafficking.

Trump threatened magazine on Sunday The Atlantic that Rodríguez “better do the right thing,” because “otherwise she will pay a high price, probably a higher one than Maduro.” After this, Rodríguez responded that she invites the Americans to “work with us on a common agenda”, but within international law frameworks. “Venezuela has the right to peace, development, sovereignty and a future.”

Natalia Maldonado thinks and then says that attacking Trump and kidnapping Maduro might have been the best approach. “You know, I am now thirty years old and this government has been in power for 26 years. I only know chavismo [naar Hugo Chávez, voorganger van Maduro] and every year it gets worse. The crisis is getting bigger and more intense. I really think something radical has to happen here, otherwise we won’t get out of trouble. The entire regime must go,” she says.

Oil

With the capture of Maduro and the accompanying military operation – both actions are unlawful under international law – the US shows that the law of the strongest applies. Latin American leaders who are not favorable to them must fear that they could be suddenly eliminated. For example, Trump already threatened that left-wing Colombian President Petro could be next and used threatening language against Mexico and Cuba, both left-wing countries like Colombia. Although Cuba is a dictatorship and Mexico is a democracy.

This threatening language is also heard in Cúcuta. The city has been sucked into the major refugee crisis for years, with almost 8 million Venezuelans fleeing their country and is not looking forward to being sucked into an international conflict. A poster of candidates for the presidential elections in May hangs in the streets. The expectation is that the country will elect a right-wing candidate.

Zoom in

That oil plays a major role for the Americans – Venezuela has the largest proven reserves in the world – has become more than clear in recent days. This is no surprise for Lize Martins. “My grandmother already told me that it was the gringos who started investing when oil was discovered in our country. The loss was great when Maduro’s predecessor Chávez nationalized everything. I don’t think they ever really got over that.”

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