Venezuela latest news: Brazil to deploy ARMY to safeguard border
Millions of Venezuelans have fled the country to neighbouring Brazil following shock food and medicine shortages that came in the wake of crippling hyperinflation.
Brazil’s President Michel Temer gave a televised address to the troubled country that saw him call Venezuela’s migrant situation “tragic”.
He said: “The problem of Venezuela is no longer one of internal politics.
“It is a threat to the harmony of the whole continent.”
Brazil’s move comes after dangerous clashes between Brazilian locals and Venezuelan migrants that caused major unrest and threatened peace across the entire South American continent.
President Temer shipped troops to border town Pacaraima, the location where the unrest broke out.
The leader signed a decree to deploy soldiers to Brazil for two weeks and then to the northern state of Roraima in an effort to ensure the safety of Brazilians.
The deployment comes after neighbouring Peru declared a 60-day health emergency after outcry from authorities over the spread of diseasesamid the migrant crisis. The two-month long health emergency has been sought in two provinces on Peru’s northern border.
Venezuela’s migrant crisis has been triggered by the nation’s economic downfall, which is now in its fourth year running.
A shock crash in oil prices in 2014 has since seen one in five Venezuelans live in poverty.
People have died due to a lack of medicine and Venezuelans have been forced to queue for hours to buy what scraps of food the country has available.
Since the crash, 2.3million citizens have fled, sparking the worst migration crisis in Latin American history according to the United Nations.
This has caused much tension in neighbouring countries which have struggled to accommodate the influx of Venezuelans.
Popular routes taken by migrants fleeing Venezuela are to Brazil, Peru, Costa Rica, Mexico and Columbia.
Others have traveled to the US, Ecuador, Chile and further afield to Argentina. Today, there are more than one million Venezuelans in Colombia, more than 500,000 in Ecuador, 400,000 in Peru and 60,000 in Brazil.
Peru has tightened its border by demanding passports from Venezuelans instead of ID cards.