Venezuela’s self-proclaimed Acting President Juan Guaido arrived on the country’s border with Colombia to organise the entry of humanitarian aid that incumbent Nicolas Maduro rejects as a plot to create a pretext for US military intervention. Guaido, who reached the border on Thursday, said that the humanitarian aid being stored at border points in Colombia and Brazil, as well as on the island of Curacao, would be brought into the country on Saturday, reports Efe news. The aid is being provided by the US and several other of the roughly 50 countries that have recognised Guaido as Acting President in the weeks following his January 23 proclamation. Two days ago, Maduro’s government suspended all maritime and air travel between Venezuela and Curacao, a self-governing part of the Netherlands, whose government backs Guaido’s claim to the presidency. The Venezuelan leader says the humanitarian aid initiative is a ruse and that the opposition’s ultimate goal is a military invasion aimed at ending 20 years of leftist rule. Maduro announced on Thursday the arrival of 7.5 tons of medical supplies from Russia. “The medicines we need, they are arriving in Venezuela every week on a permanent basis,” he said. Three years ago, the National Assembly declared a state of emergency in response to chronic shortages of medical supplies and the deterioration of health-care infrastructure. The latest results of the latest National Survey of Hospitals, released on Thursday, show that 1,557 patients died due to a lack of medicines or other vital supplies. Maduro uses the term “blockade” to refer to Washington’s sanctions on the Venezuelan government, which began under former President Barack Obama but have been sharply escalated by incumbent Donald Trump and now constitute a virtual financial quarantine of Caracas. Days after recognising Guaido as acting president, the Trump administration blocked the Maduro administration from receiving proceeds from the sale of Venezuelan oil to the US. The UK, which likewise recognizes Guaido, has refused Maduro’s request to repatriate Venezuelan gold reserves kept in London. The Colombian aid depot is in Cucuta, which is linked to the Venezuelan city of San Cristobal by the Tienditas bridge, a modern span completed in 2016 that has never been opened to traffic amid ongoing quarrels between Bogota and Caracas over migration, smuggling and cross-border crime. As the US shipments began to arrive in Cucuta, the Venezuelan army parked large vehicles on their side of Tienditas, which was already bisected by mental fencing.

What Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have been doing while the Jaish-e-Mohammad engineered the suicide attack that killed over 40 Central Reserve Police Force soldiers in Pulwama on 14 February, has given birth to a pitched Twitter battle involving Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, Congress social media in-charge Divya Spandana and the official Twitter handles of the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party.

At a media interaction on Thursday, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala had said Modi had been shooting for a documentary at the Jim Corbett National Park on the afternoon when the suicide attack took place.

The photographs of Modi from that day, which were displayed by Surjewala, were tweeted by Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday. Calling Modi the “prime time minister,” Rahul said the prime minister had continued shooting for the film three hours after news of the Pulwama terror strike came in.

Using the hashtag #PhotoShootSarkar, Rahul sought to highlight how Modi was seemingly oblivious while “there was an ocean of pain in the country’s hearts.”

पुलवामा में 40 जवानों की शहादत की खबर के तीन घंटे बाद भी ‘प्राइम टाइम मिनिस्टर’ फिल्म शूटिंग करते रहे।

देश के दिल व शहीदों के घरों में दर्द का दरिया उमड़ा था और वे हँसते हुए दरिया में फोटोशूट पर थे।#PhotoShootSarkar pic.twitter.com/OMY7GezsZN

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) February 22, 2019

Within an hour of Rahul’s tweet, the official handle of the BJP had tweeted that the photos were “from that morning” (and therefore could not be used to prove that Modi was shooting during the afternoon attack) and accused Rahul of peddling fake news. The tweet also, even more damningly, said Rahul may have known of the attack in “advance.”

Rahul Ji, India is tired of your fake news. Stop sharing photos from that morning to shamelessly mislead the nation.
Maybe you knew in advance of the attack but people of India got to know in the evening.
Try a better stunt next time, where sacrifice of soldiers isn’t involved. https://t.co/qiAhUKrNdg

— BJP (@BJP4India) February 22, 2019

Congress social media in-charge Divya Spandana was quick to ask BJP make up its own mind and cited discrepancies in the weather of that morning and the claim that the photos were from that time. “This is what happens when you lie, you can’t keep track of it. Make up your mind BJP was there bad weather or not? Was he informed or not? ‘Cos if this is morning then you’re caught lying with your pants down,” she tweeted. She also wrote on how no national mourning was declared.

Tragic truth is whether he knew in time or not, he didn’t even declare national mourning that speaks volume of the man. Also he continued to campaign, kept the martyrs family waiting for hours. Didn’t condemn the attacks on Kashmiri’s. The irony, he went to collect a peace award!

— Ramya/Divya Spandana (@divyaspandana) February 22, 2019

The Congress’ official Twitter handle too got involved and pointed the BJP to a news article

Nice try, but the only one pulling stunts was Modiji during his photoshoot – which took place from 2:30 to 4:30pm (at this point he knew about the attacks) – & then at a rally where he didn't even bother addressing the Pulwama attack. #PhotoShootSarkar https://t.co/nfPsocUtsL https://t.co/8xE7PnAbwl

— Congress (@INCIndia) February 22, 2019

At Thursday’s press meet, Surjewala had suggested that Modi’s shoot was for “self propagation”. He also claimed the prime minister had continued to “have tea and samosas at seven o’clock in a PWD guest house when every single Indian household didn’t eat food (that day)”.

On 14 February, Modi was in Uttarakhand for multiple events. News of the Pulwama attack began coming in by 3.30 pm. In the wake of the Congress accusation, a senior government official told Economic Times that an “aggrieved Prime Minister cancelled his rally in Rudrapur and held multiple review meetings in Uttarakhand” after learning of the attack.

“It was on the way from Corbett to Rudrapur around 4 pm that news of the attack first trickled in. Modi was angry about being informed late,” he said.

By 6.48 pm, he had tweeted his first reaction to the attack.

source: Firstpost.com