Venezuela's controversial leader Nicolás Maduro has announced that all diplomatic relations with Colombia have been broken off. The "fascist government of Colombia" had actively supported the foreign relief supplies to Venezuela initiated by the self-proclaimed transitional president Juan Guaidó, Maduro said at a rally in the capital Caracas. Therefore all diplomatic representatives of the neighboring country would have to leave Venezuela within 24 hours.

Near the border town of Ureña, four lorries with relief supplies for Venezuela's needy people had broken through the border on a bridge. Security forces Maduros then shot the convoy and the people accompanying him on foot with tear gas and rubber bullets. At least six people were injured, as the broadcasters VPI-TV and CNN en Español reported.

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Photo gallery: showdown at the border

Venezuela is suffering from a severe economic and supply crisis. For lack of foreign exchange, the resource-rich country can barely import food, medicines and everyday necessities for the needy population. Many people are starving, over three million Venezuelans have already left their homeland.

The self-proclaimed interim President Juan Guaidó had promised the citizens the delivery of relief supplies for this Saturday. They are to be imported from a camp in Cucuta on the Colombian side to Ureña in Venezuela. But already in the morning the situation escalated.

The transitions are blocked at the behest of the socialist government. The four trucks passed only a first barrier in the middle of the frontier bridge Francisco de Paula Santander, then they were stopped on the Venezuelan side by the security forces.

According to Maduro, the aid action of his counterpart Guaidó has the goal to initiate military intervention by the US and the overthrow of the government. The army is one of Maduro's main pillars, but its support is crumbling here: The Colombian immigration authorities said on Saturday that eleven other Venezuelan soldiers and two policemen had deserted and fled across the border into Colombia.

Video: Army fires tear gas on demonstrators in Venezuela

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REUTERS