CUCUTA, Colombia _ As hundreds of thousands of people began converging on this far-flung border town to demand that Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro allow humanitarian aid into the country, the embattled administration was reinforcing its borders, taking increasingly dramatic and violent measures to keep the relief out.
Colombia's immigration department on Friday released a video showing Venezuelan troops welding containers and a tanker truck to the Tienditas international bridge _ solidifying an already formidable obstacle intended to block aid delivery.
And security forces opened fire on opposition protesters along the border with Brazil, leaving at least one dead.
The actions come as Colombia is hosting a massive benefit concert Friday called Venezuela Aid Live in hopes of raising $100 million and goading Maduro into accepting food and medical supplies that are being stockpiled in Colombia, Brazil and the Dutch island of Curacao.
Colombian President Ivan Duque, Chilean President Sebastian Pinera and the U.S. envoy for Venezuela, Elliott Abrams, are expected to attend Friday's event, which is being organized by British billionaire and Virgin Group founder Richard Branson.
The concert is a prelude to a weekend of intense activity. On Saturday, supporters of Venezuelan opposition leader and self-proclaimed president Juan Guaido say they will rush the border and form a "humanitarian corridor" to shuttle the stranded aid into the country.
And on Monday, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence will attend a meeting of the Lima Group of countries in Bogota, which is likely to lead to increased diplomatic pressure on Maduro and his allies.
Maduro has responded to the events as if they were tantamount to war. He's closed the country's borders with Brazil and Curacao and sent troops to the Colombian frontier. His security forces have also been trying to disrupt convoys of people, including opposition legislators, trying to reach the border.
While he denies there's a humanitarian crisis in the country, he's also said his administration has plenty of help. On Thursday, he said 7.5 tons of medicine and medical supplies had come in from Russia and that more is on its way.
But for many, Maduro's actions seem cynical.
Desiree Salinas, 31, traveled for five hours from the Venezuelan city of Merida to Cucuta to attend Friday's concert, and on Saturday she'll help take aid from Cucuta back to Venezuela in defiance of Maduro and his troops.
She said it's an act of desperation in a country where food and medicine have become increasingly hard to find or out of reach amid hyperinflation.
"We pray every day that one of our kids doesn't get sick," she said, "because there's no way to help them."
Juan Carlos Flores, 35, also plans to carry aid over the border Saturday. Asked if he was worried about being detained or attacked by Maduro's followers or police _ as appears to have happened in southern Venezuela along the border with Brazil _ he shrugged.
"There's nothing to be scared of," he said. "We've already lost everything."
