DLA.- Isabel Castillo Zambrano, president of the Chamber of Commerce of San Antonio del Táchira, pointed out that Violence in Colombia, especially in the town of La Parada, Norte de Santander, is considerably affecting those who live in the Venezuelan border towns, both in the municipalities of Bolívar and Pedro María Ureña.
Castillo recalled that Venezuelans and Colombians who live on the border live together and the events that have occurred in recent days in the La Parada district, where there have been clashes between police officials and criminal groups, put the lives of the people who travel over the international bridges and those who live very close to the place.
He remembered that Last week when there was a shootout on the Colombian side, the bullets reached a sector of San Antonio del Táchira known as the invasion. “It is very important that the governments, both the governments of Colombia and Venezuela, take action on the matter because it is truly a considerable situation and we must pay close attention to it and find a solution as soon as possible because we see ourselves at risk. both the population of Venezuela and the populations of Colombia,” he emphasized.
Castillo fears that the violent events will spread to the Venezuelan sideAlthough he clarified that there is security in the national territory, he does not rule out that it could happen at any moment. He believes that the border population is not exempt from this situation, which is why he urged the authorities to find a solution that benefits both parties and quickly.
He stated that when acts of violence have been recorded on the Venezuelan side, commerce in San Antonio del Táchira is paralyzed and representatives have to look for their children in educational institutions.
“At noon the representatives had to go to remove the children, as if out of fear, fear that this would happen again, because that was for about an hour, an hour of violence,” he said, referring to the fact that It occurred on October 16 when two Colombian police officers were injured in the middle of the confrontation.
Traders in uncertainty
Isabel Castillo indicated that border merchants are in uncertainty after the presidential elections on July 28 in Venezuela. He narrated that they had been seeing that some businesses were opening, but after that date they have seen a kind of “slowdown” in commerce.
He specified that companies in the textile sector and in the leather sector have been closing and those who are still active are those who have restaurants or fast food sales, refrigerators and delicatessens.
He stated that the situation that border trade is suffering, in addition to being a consequence of the country’s socioeconomic problem, is also a product of insecurity on the Colombian side, “because it is a secret to no one that we walk, we move across that bridge, whether by transportation, whether on foot, but we can do it, but we can do it in a safe way, because from one moment to the next those moments occur and that is what causes this series of situations,” he said.
He said that what they want is peace, tranquility, to be able to live well, to be able to generate employment in the border area, and to be able to produce so that the border is once again the most active in Latin America.
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