At the Simón Bolívar International Bridge, which spans the Táchira River, foot and vehicle traffic flowed as normal through the main border crossing between Venezuela and Colombia.
But a day after the extraordinary US capture and rendition of Venezuela’s leader, Nicolás Maduro, there was an air of uncertainty over what comes next.
On the Venezuelan side of the bridge, a member of the Bolivarian national guard said that his instructions from the military top brass had not changed.
“It’s a bit tense but we have been given no new orders,” he said.
Donald Trump said on Saturday that the US would now “run” the country for an indeterminate period of transition, but such claims seemed not to have filtered down to this corner of the country, 640km (400 miles) from Caracas. “Whoever governs us has to be a Venezuelan,” said the man.
In a sign that Venezuelan authorities are also on edge, his commanding officer angrily cut short the conversation and tore a page from a reporter’s notebook before suggesting that she return to the Colombian side.
“Things are complicated,” he said.
That sentiment applies in Colombia too, where the leftwing president, Gustavo Petro, called the US action an “assault on the sovereignty” of Latin America, which would lead to a humanitarian crisis.
Over the past 15 years, more than 2 million Venezuelans have fled hunger, political repression and economic crisis at home to seek refuge in the neighbouring country, and the prospect of further destabilisation has worried Colombian leaders.
Petro’s criticism of the US campaign against Venezuela, and its targeting of small boats in the Caribbean and Pacific, has infuriated Trump who on Saturday said that the Colombian leader should “watch his ass”.
On Sunday, Colombia’s defence minister, Pedro Sánchez, said at a security meeting that the president’s security detail had been reinforced.
“Security has been increased around him,” he said, adding that the military is “intent on protecting not just our sovereignty but also the democratic structure that voters have elected”.
He said that the main threat along the more than 2,200km-long border with Venezuela were organised crime factions and rebel groups such as Tren de Aragua and the National Liberation Army (ELN), which are present in both countries.
In a statement on Sunday, the ELN sharply criticised the detention of Maduro, saying that “once again, American imperialism attacks the national sovereignty of countries in Our America and the world”.
The 6,000-strong guerrilla army, one of Latin America’s most heavily armed groups, straddles the border and has a strong presence inside Venezuela where it is active in eight of the country’s 24 states, expanding its finances, territorial control and political influence. While nominally a leftwing insurgency, analysts describe its presence in Venezuela as more a paramilitary force that acts in support of the Maduro government.
At the security meeting, Sánchez said contingency plans had been put in place in case of a humanitarian emergency.
As part of that plan, early on Sunday a team of volunteers with the Colombian Red Cross set up a tarpaulin under some trees at the border, with an ambulance parked to the side.
Pedro Casanova, one of the team, said it was a preventive measure in case of a large outflow of Venezuelans if violence breaks out, though he was quick to add that they have had no indication of any large-scale movements. “The worst case scenario is that 120,000 people could cross,” he said.
Reporting inside Venezuela is severely restricted. Authorities have declined visas for foreign journalists to enter the country, and at least 21 Venezuelan reporters were arrested in the first 11 months of 2025 and face charges of treason or terrorism for their work, according to the National Association of Journalists.
Nubiola Fanco, 60, who crossed into Colombia early on Sunday morning to restock her general store said there was a tense calm on the Venezuelan side.
“People cleaned out the whole store yesterday,” after Maduro’s arrest, she said as she piled her shopping cart high with cans of tuna, packs of beans and lentils, cat food and cleaning supplies. “No one knows what could happen next.”
Behind her at the register at a discount supermarket, construction worker Oxiel Pérez, 57, was shopping for his extended family in San Antonio where he said many shops were closed after Venezuelans rushed to buy essential goods after the US military action. “Just in case,” he said.
Amid lingering uncertainty over the future, many exiles held muted celebrations. At a rally at the riverfront in central Cúcuta in Colombia on Saturday evening, Venezuelans forced to leave their homes chanted “Freedom, freedom!” and sang their national anthem, their shoulders wrapped in their country’s yellow, blue and red flag.
When a compere asked who had already packed their bags to return to Venezuela, Rynna Mora, 41, energetically raised her hands and shouted. In reality, however, she says she’s not quite ready to do that.
“I would love to go back tomorrow but I’ll have to wait and see how things settle.”
