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Four Venezuelan National Guard troops defected Saturday from President Nicolas Maduro's regime amid an armed government blockade of humanitarian aid.
Three members defected at Venezuela's border with Colombia, the Colombian immigration department said. A fourth guardsman defected from another border bridge to the Colombian side.
The Venezuelan guardsmen held rifles and handguns over their heads as they were received by Colombian migration authorities.
Opposition leader Juan Guaido, the National Assembly president, whom the United States and nearly 60 other countries have recognized as interim president instead of Maduro, hopes for more defections.
Guaido has said that international aid for the country, reeling from a long political and economic crisis, would enter Saturday despite an armed government blockade.
Maduro had ordered the blockade of the international bridge connecting the country to the Colombian city of Cucuta earlier this month ahead of U.S. humanitarian aid arriving in Colombia a week ago. Maduro also closed the Venezuela-Brazil border Thursday, citing the planned delivery of foreign aid against his wishes.
While the country's poverty has soared to record levels with a lack of medicine and food, Maduro denies the humanitarian crisis exists and says the U.S. aid efforts are part of a plot to bring down his government.
On Friday, at least two people died when troops loyal to Maduro opened fire on citizens attempting to keep Venezuela's southern border with Brazil open to humanitarian aid this weekend.
Guaido took to Twitter to encourage Venezuelans to protest Maduro's blockade of humanitarian aid.
"We call on everyone to go out into the streets on a massive scale throughout the country, to demonstrate peacefully in the barracks to demand # FANB (Venezuelan armed forces) to let humanitarian aid go through," Guaido tweeted Saturday. "Let's make today the cry of an entire people that wants life, future and freedom."
Three members defected at Venezuela's border with Colombia, the Colombian immigration department said. A fourth guardsman defected from another border bridge to the Colombian side.
The Venezuelan guardsmen held rifles and handguns over their heads as they were received by Colombian migration authorities.
Opposition leader Juan Guaido, the National Assembly president, whom the United States and nearly 60 other countries have recognized as interim president instead of Maduro, hopes for more defections.
Guaido has said that international aid for the country, reeling from a long political and economic crisis, would enter Saturday despite an armed government blockade.
Maduro had ordered the blockade of the international bridge connecting the country to the Colombian city of Cucuta earlier this month ahead of U.S. humanitarian aid arriving in Colombia a week ago. Maduro also closed the Venezuela-Brazil border Thursday, citing the planned delivery of foreign aid against his wishes.
While the country's poverty has soared to record levels with a lack of medicine and food, Maduro denies the humanitarian crisis exists and says the U.S. aid efforts are part of a plot to bring down his government.
On Friday, at least two people died when troops loyal to Maduro opened fire on citizens attempting to keep Venezuela's southern border with Brazil open to humanitarian aid this weekend.
Guaido took to Twitter to encourage Venezuelans to protest Maduro's blockade of humanitarian aid.
"We call on everyone to go out into the streets on a massive scale throughout the country, to demonstrate peacefully in the barracks to demand # FANB (Venezuelan armed forces) to let humanitarian aid go through," Guaido tweeted Saturday. "Let's make today the cry of an entire people that wants life, future and freedom."
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