Venezuela on Monday announced a 60-day extension of its partial closure of the border with Colombia after President Nicolas Maduro said his country was under attack by neighboring paramilitary groups, drug traffickers and black marketeers.
The move came after the governor of Tachira state in western Venezuela said more than 1,000 undocumented Colombians had been expelled over the weekend for suspected black market activities. The expulsions followed an incident Wednesday in which unknown gunmen wounded three National Guard members at an outpost near the border.
Maduro blamed the violence on Colombian paramilitary groups involved in smuggling.
The two countries have been at odds over trans-border trade.