Cucuta, Colombia - Volunteers in the Colombian border city of Cucuta began preparing US aid packets for Venezuelans, despite Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro vowing to not let in what he called on Friday "fake humanitarian" assistance.
![US humanitarian aid that has arrived to the Colombia-Venezuela border. [Steven Grattan/Al Jazeera]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5bc413189b7d1509fe6fc64b/1549751436618-528XAKTLIH7EZYB3LG61/IMG_3007.JPG)
US humanitarian aid that has arrived to the Colombia-Venezuela border. [Steven Grattan/Al Jazeera]
Cucuta, Colombia - Trucks carrying food and medical supplies from the United States have arrived in Cucuta, on the Colombia-Venezuela border, stoking tensions with the government of President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas.
![Aid arrives through the guarded entrance to the Tienditas border bridge in Cucuta, which Venezuela has barricaded [Steven Grattan/Al Jazeera]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5bc413189b7d1509fe6fc64b/1549748412758-HGU16D9HN2VM9DCZPETD/IMG_2856.JPG)
Aid arrives through the guarded entrance to the Tienditas border bridge in Cucuta, which Venezuela has barricaded [Steven Grattan/Al Jazeera]
Martha Alarcon strokes the head of a young Venezuelan woman in tears who is hungry and exhausted from walking the highway in scorching heat.
This is nothing new for Alarcon. Owner of a small roadside snack stall, the 55-year-old Colombian has been helping Venezuelans trying to escape their country’s economic collapse for more than two years – providing food, drink, and a place to sleep on the outskirts of the overrun border town of Cúcuta.
Venezuelan´s arrive at a road by shelter in tears, hungry and exhausted from walking the highway in scorching heat. Steven Grattan/IRIN
Even when cities seem progressive on the surface, the lived experience of members of the LGBT community can tell a dramatically different story.
Ireland became the first country in the world to adopt same-sex marriage by popular vote in 2015. Photograph: Cathal McNaughton/Reuters
White flags and balloons filled streets nationwide as thousands of Colombians marched on Sunday to express outrage at violence after a car bomb blamed by the government on ELN rebels killed 20 police cadets and injured dozens.
People take part in a rally against violence, following a car bomb explosion, in Bogota, Colombia January 20, 2019. REUTERS/Luisa Gonzalez
Colombian authorities evacuated a camp that housed Venezuelan immigrants in the capital of Bogota on Tuesday, dismantling a temporary shelter even as the flow of refugees from the crisis-stricken neighboring nation is expected to continue unabated.
Venezuelan migrants sit on their possessions outside the recently closed camp in Bogota, Colombia. Photo: Steven Grattan
Neirys Brazon scrubs her children’s garments over a dirty bucket of water, hanging them on a football net behind her to dry. The ground is soggy and reeks of sewage, but it’s home for now.
Venezuelan migrants at the temporary camp in Bogota, Colombia. Photo: Steven Grattan
BARRANQUILLA, Colombia (Reuters) - Colombia must invest more in education if there is to be peace, pop star Shakira said on Friday, during a visit to her home country to close her El Dorado tour and break ground at two schools to be built by her charitable foundation.
Colombian singer Shakira poses for a photo in Cartagena, Colombia November 2, 2018. REUTERS/Steven Grattan.
Edison Sanchez smooths out a piece of fabric and begins work on a clattery electric sewing machine. Just two years ago, this same piece of equipment was used to make fighters’ fatigues deep in the guerrilla camps of the Colombian mountains.
A former Farc guerilla at work on a sewing machine. Photograph: Cady Voge
IPIALES, Colombia (Reuters) - Dozens of furious Venezuelan migrants fleeing economic misery in Venezuela for a new life elsewhere on Sunday defied rules requiring they hold a valid passport to cross the border from Colombia into Ecuador, and authorities appeared to be allowing it.
Venezuelan migrant waits in line to register their entry into Ecuador, at the Rumichaca International Bridge, in Tulcan, Ecuador August 19, 2018. REUTERS/Luisa Gonzalez