Two international bridges, Simon Bolivar and Francisco de Paula Santader in central-west Venezuela are still closed. There have been reports that residents and merchants were confused about what was going on and there were brief clashes between guards and residents.
Venezuela is blaming Colombian paramilitary and Venezuela’s vice president Carrizalez has called this the “paramilitary phenomenon,” that has been created in Colombia and has filtered through the border into Venezuela. He has also accused the Colombian government of being unconcerned about this paramilitary activity, which is aimed at destabilizing Venezuela. This august, relations started worsening when Colombia accused Venezuela of giving weapons to FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Venezuela).
Chavez views the U.S and Colombia’s agreement which allows U.S personnel at the seven military bases to be an “act of war” with the aim to destabilize his socialist government. Chavez’s opposition to U.S presence in Colombia does make sense partly because it is believed that the U.S was behind a coup against him in 2002. Even former president Jimmy Carter has said that “there is no doubt that in 2002, the United States had at the very least full knowledge about the coup, and could even have been directly involved. "
See:Source
Another important and pertinent advice which can be applied to both Colombia’s and Venezuela’s accusations over the border violence and accusations, can be summed up by Carter who said that: "international relations would be better if he [Chavez] would stop his attacks and insults against the United States". In this case concerning the deteriorating relationship between Colombia and Venezuela, cooperation instead of accusations and petty games should be on their political agenda.
