The death toll from clashes on Venezuela's border with Brazil in late February has climbed to seven people as one of the injured has succumbed to his wounds at a hospital, Venezuelan human rights non-governmental organization Foro Penal said on Monday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th March, 2019) The death toll from clashes on Venezuela's border with Brazil in late February has climbed to seven people as one of the injured has succumbed to his wounds at a hospital, Venezuelan human rights non-governmental organization Foro Penal said on Monday.
The clashes between the Venezuelan security officers and protesters erupted along the southeastern border town of Santa Elena de Uairen after the Venezuelan opposition tried to forcefully bring in the so-called humanitarian aid from a hub in Brazil, in defiance of Caracas' ban on accepting US-sponsored aid.
"This is the 7th [person] killed during the events of February 22 and 23," the organization's director-president, Alfredo Romero, wrote on Twitter.
Initial reports indicated that at least four people were killed in the violence. Caracas has not provided any official information confirming or dismissing Foro Penal's figures.
Luis Almagro, the secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS), said in the aftermath of the clashes that at least 335 people had been injured on Venezuela's border both with Brazil and Colombia, where pro-aid protesters also tried to help deliver the supplies to Venezuela by the Simon Bolivar Bridge pre-emptively closed by Caracas.
Tensions in Venezuela escalated last month when US-backed opposition leader Juan Guaido illegally declared himself interim president. The United States immediately recognized Guaido, seized billions of Dollars' worth of the country's oil assets, and threatened to use military action against incumbent President Nicolas Maduro's government. Russia, China, Cuba, Bolivia and a number of other countries have reaffirmed their support for Maduro as Venezuela's only legitimate president.
Maduro has accused Guaido of conspiring with the United States to overthrow the country's legitimate government including by organizing the delivery of so-called humanitarian as part of a plan to justify US military intervention.
The country's vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, recalled that under international norms, humanitarian aid is provided only in cases of natural disasters and armed conflicts, and Venezuela has been affected by neither of them.
