CUCUTA, Colombia _ Heads of state, diplomats, musicians and others were streaming Friday into this city along the Colombian-Venezuelan border, site of a U.S.-backed effort to undermine Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by forcing the entry of massive supplies of humanitarian aid into Venezuela.
Hours before dueling benefit concerts on each side of the border here and an expected showdown over donated food and medicine, a clash over aid deliveries on Venezuela's border with Brazil left at least one woman dead, according to news and social media accounts.
The escalating aid dispute has become a major flashpoint in Trump administration efforts to force Maduro out of office.
The U.S. strategy seems dependent on a possible move by the Venezuelan armed forces to defy Maduro and allow the tons of food and medicine brought by U.S. Air Force cargo jets to enter via the Colombia border. That would be a huge rebuff to Maduro.
But the military top brass in Venezuela has repeatedly affirmed its support for Maduro, despite some recent, limited defections. There has been no public indication that the Venezuelan military is poised to turn on Maduro and allow the aid, now stockpiled near the border, to enter the country.
A large-scale aid concert backed by the Venezuelan opposition and British billionaire Richard Branson was being staged Friday on the Colombian side of the border, while the government in Caracas said it planned a "hands off Venezuela" concert on its side.
Venezuela has for years suffered from a lack of food and medicine, contributing to an exodus of some 3.4 million people, many of them in recent years, according to the latest United Nations estimates.
Brazil is another neighboring country where Venezuela-bound aid was being stockpiled.
But Venezuelan authorities stopped the supplies from entering the country from Brazil, reportedly leading to clashes with an indigenous group from the Venezuelan village of Kumarakapay seeking to get the aid in. At least one woman was killed and 13 other people injured after Venezuelan troops opened fire, according to initial news accounts.
Emilio Gonzalez, mayor of the nearby town of Gran Sabana, identified the victim as Zoraida Rodriguez, part of a group that clashed with the Venezuela National Guard and army, according to the Associated Press.
There was no immediate official confirmation of the incident from the Venezuelan government.
Earlier this week, Maduro's government closed the country's border with Brazil and halted air and sea travel to the island nation of Curacao, another hub for international aid. Maduro has also threatened to close Venezuela's border with Colombia.
Maduro has dismissed the aid effort as a "cheap show" and prelude to a U.S. invasion; he has said the aid will not enter Venezuela.
Juan Guaido, the self-declared interim president of Venezuela who has the backing of Washington and allied capitals, has vowed that the hundreds of tons of food and medicines stockpiled here and elsewhere in the region will enter Venezuela by Saturday.
Much of the aid was donated by the United States and arrived here in recent days in C-17 cargo jets.
Guaido, who heads the opposition-controlled National Assembly, has reportedly arrived to the Venezuelan side of the border here, as has a contingent of allied lawmakers demanding Maduro's ouster. Guaido has called on Venezuelans on both sides of the border to rally in support of the aid effort.
Guaido declared himself Venezuela's acting president Jan. 23, calling Maduro a "usurper" and demanding the creation of a caretaker government and new elections.
The Live Aid-style concert backed by the Venezuelan opposition was being staged alongside Tienditas bridge, which connects Colombia and Venezuela but has been blocked by the Maduro government with cargo trailers.
Colombian officials, who back U.S. efforts to force Maduro from office, this week renamed the structure the "Unity bridge." The bridge was completed in 2015 but has never been used for regular cross-border traffic.
Maduro has vowed that, along with holding a pro-government concert, his government would deliver thousands of boxes of foodstuffs for the "poor" of Colombia.
Colombian President Ivan Duque was among the regional leaders scheduled to visit Cucuta on Friday, along with Chilean President Sebastian Pinera and Paraguayan President Mario Abdo.
Pinera and Abdo _ along with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro _ are among the right-leaning heads of state who have emerged in the aftermath of the so-called "pink tide" of center-left leadership that briefly held sway in much of Latin America.
John Bolton, the U.S. national security adviser, has labeled the left-wing governments of Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua the "troika of tyranny," leaving no doubt that the Trump administration seeks changes of leadership in all three long-time adversaries.
Maduro has accused the Trump administration of seeking to grab Venezula's oil and reassert U.S. hegemony throughout Latin America.
Elliott Abrams, the veteran diplomat and Trump administration's point man on Venezuela, is expected to arrive in Cucuta. The controversial figure is known for his Cold War-era advocacy on behalf of conservative, U.S.-allied movements in Central America.
