Venezuelans flock across border due to food shortage
It was the second weekend in a row that Venezuela's socialist government opened the long-closed border with Colombia.
Venezuela has opened its border with Colombia for the second time this month to allow people to buy food and medicine unavailable at home in their country's collapsing economy.
Colombia's government said 44,000 people crossed on Saturday to buy food, medicine and cleaning products and said it expected that number to almost double on Sunday.
Last week, over 35,000 people crossed over for the first time since the governor of Venezuela's state of Tachira, opened the border.
Socialist President Nicolas Maduro shut the border last year in an effort to crack down on smuggling of subsidised products.
Venezuela's product shortages have since worsened, creating further incentives to buy goods in Colombia and bring them back.
Venezuelans routinely spend hours in lines at home seeking items ranging from corn flour to cancer medication to car parts. Shoppers complain of violence in lines, and looting is on the rise.
Bus terminals were packed and hotels filled to capacity in the border town of San Antonio, with many traveling hundreds of miles to shop.
A drop in oil prices has left Venezuela's economy in tatters, and the lack of hard currency and inflation have starved the country of food, medicine and consumer goods.
When will Maduro quit as leader of Venezuela - he is unfit to rule, blaming others for the problems he and his socialist system created!. Gross incompetency. as he has time to turn the nation around in the last 2 years but he was ineffective, inefficient. Nationalizing foreign companies, factories is not the answer. Mugabe tried it and see what happens to Zimbabwe. 2 MMs - Maduro & Mugabe = 2 Morons in action or rather inaction!
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