8 June 2019; DW: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced the decision to open the border post with Colombia, near where international aid refused by his government has been accumulating.
"In exercising our sovereignty I have ordered the opening of the border crossing to Colombia in the state of Tachira on Saturday," Maduro wrote on Twitter.
"We are a peaceful people, who determinedly defend our independence and self-determination," he continued.
In February Maduro ordered the total closure of land frontiers with Brazil and Colombia, as well as sea and air links with the Netherlands Antilles in the Caribbean.
The reopening of the pedestrian bridge between Tachira and the Colombian city of Cucuta will allow thousands of Venezuelans to work, shop or go to school across the border.
Maduro had closed borders as opposition leader and self-declared interim President Juan Guaido prepared to bring in US-backed humanitarian aid.
Uncertain if other crucial bridges to be unblocked
As Maduro and Guaido — who has been recognized as interim president by more than 50 countries vie for power, the country is suffering from shortages of food, medicine and other essentials.
Maduro did not say whether crucial border bridges, closed since August 2015 after two Venezuelan soldiers were wounded by suspected smugglers, would be unblocked.
The government in Caracas last month opened the border with Brazil and the sea route to the island of Aruba, but the Aruba authorities said the border would remain closed.
Since November, more than a million Venezuelans have left the country, according to the UN, bringing the total number of migrants and refugees abroad to 4 million, up from 695,000 in late 2015.
