Venezuela Army Trucks Block Guaido's Travels as Showdown Looms

(Bloomberg) -- Army trucks blocking a tunnel almost two hours west of Caracas are preventing Venezuelan National Assembly President Juan Guaido from reaching the Colombian border to oversee the entry of humanitarian aid planned for Saturday.

Earlier today, three buses carrying about 40 lawmakers sympathetic to Guaido left Venezuela’s capital heading for the frontier. The National Assembly president was traveling separately for security reasons and was unable to cross the tunnel, said Edward Rodriguez, his press team coordinator. Videos posted on El Nacional newspaper’s website show lawmakers physically struggling with military officials outside the tunnel.

Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro said he was considering closing the frontier with Colombia, and will completely close the land border with Brazil from tonight on. Both the government and the opposition are gearing up for a showdown this weekend over the donated food and medicine destined for Venezuela that is currently stockpiled in the neighboring countries of Colombia, Brazil and Curacao.

--With assistance from Alex Vasquez and Fabiola Zerpa.

To contact the reporter on this story: Patricia Laya in Caracas at playa2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Daniel Cancel at dcancel@bloomberg.net, Matthew Malinowski

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