		<div class="wpcnt">
			<div class="wpa">
				<span class="wpa-about">Advertisements</span>
				<div class="u top_amp">
							<amp-ad width="300" height="265"
		 type="pubmine"
		 data-siteid="111265417"
		 data-section="2">
		</amp-ad>
				</div>
			</div>
		</div><p>Thousands of Venezuelans joined migrants in neighbouring Colombia to attend a star-studded concert backing the opposition in Venezuela’s power struggle.</p>
<p>They sought to pressure President Nicolas Maduro into allowing the delivery of emergency food and medicine.</p>
<p>On the Venezuelan side, government workers assembled a smaller stage for a rival, three-day Hands Off Venezuela concert being organised by Maduro.</p>
<figure id="attachment_126565" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-126565" style="width: 600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/A4913002-4E7E-44C1-8A31-96757A452B64.jpeg"><img class="size-full wp-image-126565" src="https://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/A4913002-4E7E-44C1-8A31-96757A452B64.jpeg" alt="" width="600" height="386" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-126565" class="wp-caption-text">Venezuelan singer Carlos Baute, with Sir Richard Branson</figcaption></figure>
<p>Even as several million Venezuelans flee the country and those who remain struggle to find basic goods like food and antibiotics, the embattled president claims the relief effort led by opposition leader Juan Guaido is a US orchestrated ploy to oust him from power.</p>
<p>An optimistic mood as the concert opened in the Colombian border city of Cucuta could not mask underlying tensions a day before Maduro’s opponents embark on a risky strategy to undermine him and bring in the aid being amassed for days along three of Venezuela’s borders.</p>
<p>Thousands of miles away, near a crossing with Brazil, a member of an indigenous tribe was killed and 12 more injured in clashes with security forces who enforced Maduro’s orders to keep out the aid.</p>
<p><a href="https://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/2E62A32E-4FC9-47FF-9E8A-45B3B0AFE635.jpeg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-126568" src="https://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/2E62A32E-4FC9-47FF-9E8A-45B3B0AFE635.jpeg" alt="" width="1502" height="1143" /></a></p>
<p>Hours before the concert began, dozens of Venezuelans hiked across the border through high bushes on an unmarked trail. They carried ice boxes, snacks and water and whispered directions as they kept a close eye out for Venezuelan soldiers.</p>
<p>“This concert happens once in a lifetime,” 19-year-old Shirley Duran said. “It will be a great opportunity for so many poor people who are suffering under the heat, who are hungry, jobless. At last they’ll have something to enjoy.”</p>
<p>British tycoon Sir Richard Branson organised the concert, which featured dozens of Latin musicians on a giant stage on one side of a bridge.</p>
<figure id="attachment_126569" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-126569" style="width: 600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/5F5C080C-CF83-46CC-8A2E-E52D224C8A07.jpeg"><img class="size-full wp-image-126569" src="https://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/5F5C080C-CF83-46CC-8A2E-E52D224C8A07.jpeg" alt="" width="600" height="400" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-126569" class="wp-caption-text">Thousands attended the concert</figcaption></figure>
<p>Facing it on the other side of the bridge sat a giant shipping container and tanker that Maduro’s government has placed there to prevent the delivery of US-supplied food and medical kits.</p>
<p>As Venezuela’s political turmoil drags on, allies of Guaido, who the US and dozens of other countries have recognised as Venezuela’s rightful leader, hope the massive concert in Cucuta will set the stage for the smooth delivery Saturday of the aid and a turning point in their quest for a transitional government.</p>
<p>At the concert venue, the feeling was one of collective catharsis, especially for migrants who in recent years have fled Venezuela’s economic implosion by crossing into Colombia.</p>
<figure id="attachment_126570" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-126570" style="width: 600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/1B6CFF59-B8BD-415C-A3D2-EF36B36BDB5D.jpeg"><img class="size-full wp-image-126570" src="https://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/1B6CFF59-B8BD-415C-A3D2-EF36B36BDB5D.jpeg" alt="" width="600" height="412" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-126570" class="wp-caption-text">Colombian singers Silvestre Dangond, left, and Maluma, right, sing during the concert on the Colombian side of Tienditas International Bridge</figcaption></figure>
<p>Under a scorching sun, concertgoers waved Venezuelan flags, squirted water at each other and swayed to music by marquee artists including Argentina’s Diego Torres as well as a host of Venezuelan performers.</p>
<p>Reymar Perdomo, a Venezuelan street singer who rose to fame for a video which went viral showing her singing on buses in Peru, kicked off the concert with her signature song, Me Fui, Spanish for I Left, which has become the unofficial anthem of the mass exodus.</p>
<p>Perdomo said performing so close to the border brought back painful memories.</p>
<p>“A little over a year ago I crossed this border and was robbed of my luggage and all my money,” she said.</p>
<p>“But I know in this moment that there will be change because Venezuelans want it and they are showing it today.”</p>
<figure id="attachment_126571" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-126571" style="width: 600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/DEA49CEF-1D19-40FA-B32C-B293671976D6.jpeg"><img class="size-full wp-image-126571" src="https://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/DEA49CEF-1D19-40FA-B32C-B293671976D6.jpeg" alt="" width="600" height="750" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-126571" class="wp-caption-text">Argentine singer Diego Torres performed during the concert</figcaption></figure>
<p>Sir Richard Branson has set a goal to raise 100 million dollars (£77 million) for Venezuelans in need within 60 days.</p>
<p>He said he got the idea after brainstorming with Guaido and his political mentor, Leopoldo Lopez, who is under house arrest for leading protests against Maduro in 2014.</p>
<p><a href="https://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/5CB4A4A4-02B2-4E7A-B5C8-5853BCD071B1.jpeg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-126572" src="https://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/5CB4A4A4-02B2-4E7A-B5C8-5853BCD071B1.jpeg" alt="" width="1645" height="1895" /></a></p>
<p>“If we can take people to space why is it so hard to take people out of poverty?” he said, opening the concert before a cheering crowd.</p>
<p>“We must break the impasse and end the humanitarian crisis.”</p>
			<div style="padding-bottom:15px;" class="wordads-tag" data-slot-type="belowpost">
				<div id="atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68ed54a90a825">
					<script type="text/javascript">
						window.getAdSnippetCallback = function () {
							if ( false === ( window.isWatlV1 ?? false ) ) {
								// Use Aditude scripts.
								window.tudeMappings = window.tudeMappings || [];
								window.tudeMappings.push( {
									divId: 'atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68ed54a90a825',
									format: 'belowpost',
								} );
							}
						}

						if ( document.readyState === 'loading' ) {
							document.addEventListener( 'DOMContentLoaded', window.getAdSnippetCallback );
						} else {
							window.getAdSnippetCallback();
						}
					</script>
				</div>
			</div>
Discover more from London Glossy Post
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
