Venezuela's controversial President Nicolas Maduro ordered to close the country's vast border with Brazil "totally and completely" until further notice, just days before opposition leaders plan to bring in foreign humanitarian aid he has refused to accept.
Maduro said he was also weighing whether to shut down the border with Colombia. Maduro made the announcement on state TV surrounded by military commanders.
The shocking announcement comes days before shipments of foreign humanitarian aid are set to be delivered to Venezuela, where the situation grows more dire by the day. Maduro maintained at a meeting in Caracas that aid from foreign countries is unnecessary, and an attempt by the United States to undermine his government's power.
"We're not beggars," he said. "What the U.S. Empire is doing with its puppets is an internal provocation. They wanted to generate a great national commotion, but they didn't achieve it."
The embattled leftist leader went on TV to say that he was also considering shutting the border with Colombia to stop the opposition bringing in relief.
He denies any crisis and calls the aid delivery plans a US-orchestrated show. Opposition leader Juan Guaido is leading a convoy to the Colombian border from the capital Caracas.
Mr. Guaido declared him interim leader during anti-government protests last month and is recognized by dozens of foreign states. Buses forming his convoy set off from the city on Thursday to cheering crowds.
Mr. Guaido and his allies hope to collect food and medicine in defiance of President Maduro. The Venezuelan military has so far managed to block shipments of US aid from coming across the border with Colombia.
Despite denying there is any humanitarian crisis, Mr. Maduro announced this week that 300 tonnes of aid would be shipped to Venezuela from its ally Russia.
More than three million Venezuelans have fled in recent years as the country grapples with hyperinflation and shortages of essentials like food and medicine.
Mr. Maduro, who has been in power since 2013, has been criticized at home and abroad for his handling of the economy.
Opposition leaders led by Juan Guaido, who is opposition leader, National Assembly president, and self-declared interim Venezuelan president, are vowing to bring in US supplies of emergency food and medicine on Saturday to dramatize the country's hardships under Maduro, who has said his people need no such help.
On Tuesday, Brazilian presidential spokesman Otavio Rego Barros said that the country was organizing aid for Guido's government at the border city of Pacaraima.
"Brazil is taking part in this important international initiative to support the Guaido government and the Venezuelan people," Barros said.
