“Nobody really knows exactly how the aid will make it across,” said Sergio Guzman, director of Colombia Risk Analysis, a political risk consultancy. “We don’t know if ordinary Venezuelan volunteers will force it over or if foreign personnel will collaborate in the efforts.”Guaidó has risen from relative obscurity to orchestrate the strongest challenge to date to Maduro’s long-beleaguered rule. He’s been recognized as the country’s legitimate president by over 60 Western countries and many of Venezuela's neighbors, including Colombia. But the 35-year-old is missing one crucial backer: his country’s military.The aid delivery, scheduled for Saturday, is designed to change that. For Guaidó and his powerful U.S. ally, successfully getting aid into the country would mark the first major crack in the military’s thus-far resolute support for Maduro, and could mark the beginning of the end for his rule — whereas keeping it out may ensure his survival.“Cucuta is kind of a mess. The politicians have misused the term humanitarian intervention to disguise other objectives.”
Trucks with an humanitarian aid for Venezuelan arrive to the International Bridge Tienditas in Cucuta, border with Venezuela, Colombia, Saturday, Feb. 16, 2019. The U.S. Air Force has begun flying tons of aid to a Colombian town on the Venezuelan border as part of an effort meant to undermine socialist President Nicolas Maduro. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Rubio appeared to be a primer for President Donald Trump, who in a speech in Miami the next day sought to address Venezuela's armed forces directly, calling on them to allow the safe passage of aid into their country, or risk losing “everything.”Opposition leaders, meanwhile, are calling on all Venezuelans to go to the border on Saturday to pressure the military to let aid in.But the strategy has raised alarm among leading aid groups like Mercy Corps, Oxfam and War Child, which have warned that the politicization of humanitarian aid could put those most in need at risk.“It is regrettable that aid has become a pawn in the political chess match between the governments of the United States and Venezuela,” said Provash Budden, Americas Regional Director at Mercy Corps, in a statement. “Aid should never be used as political bait. Both the people who need it and those who risk their lives to deliver it deserve better.”Venezuelan migrants said the standoff is causing confrontations inside the country between those who want the aid to enter and Maduro supporters who reject it.“There is a lot of tension in San Cristobal, and the government is going to do everything possible for [the aid] not to get through,” said Lizbeth Aranguren, a 31-year-old saleswoman.“It is regrettable that aid has become a pawn in the political chess match between the governments of the United States and Venezuela.”
Workers unload materials for the stage of the 'Concert for the freedom of Venezuela' at the Tienditas International Bridge in the outskirts of Cucuta, Colombia, on the border with Venezuela, Monday, Feb. 18, 2019. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)