MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro ordered the border closure after two gunmen opened fire at a patrol which was on an anti-smuggling operation on Wednesday. Three officers and a civilian were wounded in the attack. Maduro also declared the state of emergency in the border state of Tachira.
"What is the real reason behind those measures?.. If it is for security, the response should not be border closure, it should be a more effective collaboration with Colombian authorities that have the same interests," Santos said Saturday, as quoted by El Universal newspaper.
Santos also called for a meeting of the two countries’ foreign ministers next week.
This is not the first time Bogota shut the border between two countries down. Last year, Venezuela deployed several hundred troops and shut the border down in an anti-smuggling operation.
