Venezuela, Colombia close borders amid escalating dispute

BOGOTA, Colombia – Despite sharing a 1,274-mile frontier, Venezuela and Colombia on Tuesday were cut off from each other, after the last remaining major border crossing was shuttered amid an escalating dispute.

More than two weeks after closing the border near the Colombian town of Cucuta, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro late Monday said he was shuttering the Paraguachon border crossing that connects Colombia’s northern Guajira department to Venezuela’s Zulia state, home to Maracaibo, the nation’s second-largest city.

Maduro said the decision was necessary to fight criminal groups and smuggling that have flourished along the border, but the drastic move threatens to disrupt the lives of hundreds of thousands.

On Tuesday, the United Nations said Venezuela had deported 1,467 Colombians since beginning its border crackdown last month, and that an additional 18,619 Colombians had left voluntarily – many fearing reprisals.

While both presidents have said they’re open to face-to-face talks, weeks of heated rhetoric and this week’s new obstacles put the meeting in doubt.

Venezuela’s state-controlled economy has been a boon for smugglers. Tens of thousands of Colombians and Venezuelans make their living selling Venezuela’s subsidized goods – particularly its cheaper-than-water gasoline – on this side of the border.

The smuggling is just one element that makes the frontier chaotic and complex. Powerful criminal gangs - considered the successors of Colombia’s demobilized paramilitary groups – stalk the frontier along with leftist guerrilla groups.