Caracas, September 10 (teleSUR-RHC)-- Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro delivered a speech on Wednesday in which he announced various measures to guarantee the safety and stability along the Venezuelan-Colombian border. The Venezuelan leader accused Colombian authorities of failing to meet Venezuelan requests to curb violence by Colombian paramilitary groups. In efforts to prevent further violence, President Maduro announced the launch of an “open consultation to formulate conditions of a new border of peace.” His speech comes after two Colombian paramilitaries were killed in an incident with Venezuelan security forces inside the border on Tuesday. The fatal scuffle, in the small municipality of Ayacucho, came just hours after President Maduro extended border closures to Venezuela’s largest state, Zulia, and imposed a state of exception in three Zulia municipalities. He previously declared a state of emergency on August 22 in five municipalities of Venezuela's Tachira state (Bolivar, Independencia, Junin, Libertad, and Ureña) after illegal smugglers opened fire on soldiers conducting anti-smuggling operations in the border city of San Antonio.
