Venezuela to expand border closure with Colombia

OREANDA-NEWS. September 16, 2015.  Venezuela's government says it intends to expand a controversial border closure with Colombia in an official effort to stem the outflow of contraband fuel and food.

"We're going to put a tourniquet on the border with the addition of four new border closure zones besides the three zones already established in Tachira and Zulia [states] to attack food and fuel smuggling," Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro said over the weekend.

The border closure has been accompanied by the suspension of constitutional guarantees in Venezuelan border towns that have long thrived off the steep differences between Venezuela?s state-controlled prices for gasoline and other goods, and market-based prices across the border.

More than 20,000 Colombians have left Venezuela since Maduro announced the initial closure on 19 August, some deported but most leaving on their own amid a crackdown by Venezuelan security forces.

A meeting between Venezuelan foreign minister Delcy Rodriguez and her Colombian counterpart Maria Angela Holguin, aimed at diffusing the tension, took place in Quito on 12 September, with the mediation of Ecuador?s foreign minister Ricardo Pati?o and Uruguay?s foreign minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa.

"Our hope is that this start of conversations will bear fruit and lead to a presidential meeting soon," Pati?o said.

No presidential meeting has yet been scheduled.

Maduro said he will seek an agreement with Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos to allow Venezuelan state-owned oil company PdV to establish its own service stations in the Colombian border town of Cucuta to sell gasoline and diesel to Colombian drivers priced in Colombian pesos and US dollars.

PdV "will sell (gasoline) in downtown Cucuta if we're given permission, good gasoline, the best in the world placed there at a very special price to favor the humble worker and taxi driver, but not the paramilitary chiefs that extort small smugglers," Maduro said.

He said PdV's current Safec preferential border fuel supply system in Tachira and Zulia, which retails gasoline and diesel exclusively to Colombian drivers at an average price of about \\$1.50/USG, could be expanded to the whole Colombian border province of Norte de Santander.

Such a scenario appears far-fetched given the current state of distrust on both sides, and chronic shortages of Venezuelan fuel in the domestic market.

Gasoline and diesel generally sells for pennies per gallon in Venezuela.

Maduro did not identify the location of the four new border closure zones. A defense ministry official said the new zones under consideration potentially could seal all official border crossings with Colombia from Castillete at the tip of Zulia to Guasdualito in Apure state, a distance of about 621mi (999km).

Critics say the expanding border closure is a ploy to distract Venezuelans from acute shortages and triple-digit inflation in the run-up to 6 December national assembly elections that are widely interpreted as a referendum on Maduro?s rule. The country?s top opposition figure Leopoldo Lopez was dealt a 13-year prison sentence last week, a decision that has drawn widespread condemnation abroad.

Venezuela?s economic crisis has deepened since oil prices collapsed in mid-2014. The country depends on oil exports for nearly all of its income.

Tachira and Zulia represent 22 seats in the national assembly, which is currently controlled by the government.

Over the weekend, Colombia accused Venezuelan military aircraft of violating its airspace on two occasions. A third incursion is alleged to have taken place today. Caracas charged Bogota with "inventing incidents" to undermine a presidential dialogue.

The border dispute has stepped up pressure on the Santos government which is struggling to wrap up a historic peace deal with the Colombian rebel group Farc, some of whose members have traditionally sought sanctuary in Venezuela.

On 11 September, Santos declared an economic, social and environmental state of emergency in 40 Colombian towns in seven provinces for a minimum of 30 days.