Colombia prepares for refugee influx after US strikes on Venezuela | US-Venezuela Tensions

Cucuta, Colombia — Colombia is bracing for a possible refugee disaster following US strikes in Venezuela and the kidnapping of President Nicolas Maduro on Saturday.

Defence Minister Pedro Sanchez introduced on Sunday that he was sending 30,000 troopers to the border with Venezuela to shore up safety, and the nation has additionally enacted emergency measures to help refugees.

On the Simon Bolivar Worldwide Bridge, which spans the Tachira River separating Colombia and Venezuela close to the border metropolis of Cucuta, automobile and foot visitors flowed usually on Monday regardless of an elevated navy presence, which included three parked Colombian M1117 armoured safety automobiles.

However with United States President Donald Trump threatening extra assaults if newly sworn-in interim chief Delcy Rodriguez doesn’t “behave”, an uneasy calm has settled over the border area, and Colombia is making ready for the worst.

Sanchez said safety forces had been “activated” to forestall any retaliation from armed teams, together with the Nationwide Liberation Military (ELN) and Segunda Marquetalia, or Second Marquetalia — a dissident faction of the leftist group FARC, which have operated with digital impunity in Venezuela for years.

Colombia’s armed teams have traditionally taken benefit of the rugged 1,367-mile (2,200km) border with Venezuela to visitors medication and search refuge from the Colombian military. With Maduro’s ouster, Colombian intelligence has signalled the attainable return of armed group leaders as their safety in Venezuela may very well be jeopardised.

In the meantime, the Colombian authorities has arrange 5 emergency command posts in cities close to the border to take care of an anticipated enhance in refugees following the US assaults on Venezuela.

“These [command posts] enable us to completely coordinate humanitarian, safety and territorial management actions, with direct state presence in essentially the most delicate areas,” mentioned Sanchez.

President Gustavo Petro additionally dispatched Minister of Equality and Fairness Juan Carlos Florian to Cucuta to handle humanitarian issues for refugees.

“We’ve applied one thing that we name a ‘border plan’,” Florian advised Al Jazeera throughout an interview on Monday in Cucuta. The plan coordinates numerous parts of the nationwide authorities in “the case of a attainable migratory disaster because of the United States navy intervention in our brother nation, Venezuela”.

The minister mentioned he met native officers to take inventory of obtainable sources for refugees, together with meals and healthcare provides, to higher perceive areas the place officers lack reserves.

With help from the United Nations Worldwide Group for Migration, the minister mentioned, the federal government can also be activating 17 ​​centres throughout the nation tasked with serving to immigrants and refugees with meals provides, entry to schooling, coaching and employment, violence prevention, and extra.

Though there was no uptick in border crossings but, the minister mentioned, the Colombian authorities expects that as much as 1.7 million individuals might arrive within the nation. Colombia is already house to 3 million Venezuelan refugees — the one largest chunk of the eight million Venezuelans who’ve left the nation.

Humanitarian organisations, too, are making ready for a attainable inflow of refugees.

Juan Carlos Torres, director of catastrophe threat administration for the Colombian Crimson Cross in Northern Santander, of which Cucuta is the capital, advised Al Jazeera that the nonprofit has activated an emergency response plan in anticipation of a attainable refugee disaster.

Utilizing an preliminary 88,000 Swiss francs (about $111,000) from the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), the organisation is boosting its quick capability to offer primary humanitarian support to refugees close to the border.

“Yesterday we had been on the [Simon Bolivar Bridge] doing preventative measures; ambulance providers, transport, safety, what the human beings want,” mentioned Torres. “Proper now the scenario is ‘regular’ however over the course of days”, issues might change, he prompt.

If situations stabilise in Venezuela, refugees is perhaps prepared to return to the nation, he mentioned. But when they don’t, extra individuals may need to depart Venezuela, Torres mentioned.

Strolling arm in arm with a good friend, 50-year-old Mary Esperaza crossed into Colombia from Venezuela over the Simon Bolivar Bridge on Monday afternoon. Rodriguez, who’s from Cucuta however lives throughout the river in Venezuela, mentioned she was undecided if there could be one other migration disaster quickly.

“We’re ready to see what occurs,” she mentioned. “Apparently, every little thing is calm, however we don’t know what’s going to occur tomorrow.”