10 Mar 2019 – <\/em>The narrative seemed to fit Venezuela\u2019s authoritarian rule: Security forces, on the order of President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, had torched a convoy of humanitarian aid as millions in his country were suffering from illness and hunger.<\/p>\n Vice President Mike Pence wrote that \u201cthe tyrant in Caracas danced\u201d<\/a> as his henchmen \u201cburned food & medicine.\u201d The State Department released a video<\/a> saying Mr. Maduro had ordered the trucks burned. And Venezuela\u2019s opposition held up the images<\/a> of the burning aid, reproduced on dozens of news sites<\/a> and television screens<\/a> throughout Latin America, as evidence of Mr. Maduro\u2019s cruelty.<\/p>\n But there is a problem: The opposition itself, not Mr. Maduro\u2019s men, appears to have set the cargo alight accidentally.<\/p>\n Unpublished footage obtained by The New York Times and previously released tapes \u2014 including footage released by the Colombian government, which has blamed Mr. Maduro for the fire \u2014 allowed for a reconstruction of the incident. It suggests that a Molotov cocktail thrown by an antigovernment protester was the most likely trigger for the blaze.<\/p>\n At one point, a homemade bomb made from a bottle is hurled toward the police, who were blocking a bridge connecting Colombia and Venezuela to prevent the aid trucks from getting through.<\/p>\n But the rag used to light the Molotov cocktail separates from the bottle, flying toward the aid truck instead.<\/p>\n Half a minute later, that truck is in flames.<\/p>\n The same protester can be seen 20 minutes earlier, in a different video, hitting another truck with a Molotov cocktail, without setting it on fire.<\/p>\n (click to enlarge<\/a>)<\/strong><\/p>\n The burning of the aid last month has led to broad condemnation of the Venezuelan government.<\/p>\n More than three million people have fled the country<\/a> because of the humanitarian crisis caused by Mr. Maduro\u2019s mismanagement of the economy. Political opponents who have remained in the country face repression by his security forces, with many jailed, tortured or forced into exile. Many demonstrators have been killed and even more injured during street protests.<\/p>\n Many of Mr. Maduro\u2019s critics claim that he ordered medication set on fire during the border standoff<\/a> \u2014 even though many of his people have died of medicine shortages<\/a> in hospitals.<\/p>\n Yet the claim about a shipment of medicine, too, appears to be unsubstantiated, according to videos and interviews.<\/p>\n The United States Agency for International Development, the principal supplier of the aid at the bridge, did not list medicine among its donations. A top opposition official on the bridge that day told The Times that the burned shipment contained medical supplies like face masks and gloves, but not medicine. And video clips reviewed by The Times show some of the boxes contained hygiene kits, which the Americans identified as containing supplies like soap and toothpaste.<\/p>\n Yet the claim that Mr. Maduro burned medicine has persisted.<\/p>\n \u201cMaduro has lied about the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela, he contracts criminals to burn food and medicine intended for the Venezuelan people,\u201d wrote John R. Bolton, President Trump\u2019s national security adviser, in a message posted on Twitter<\/a> on March 2.<\/p>\n After being contacted by The Times about these claims, American officials released a statement describing how the fire began more cautiously.<\/p>\n \u201cEyewitness accounts indicate that the fire started when Maduro\u2019s forces violently blocked the entry of humanitarian assistance,\u201d the statement said. It did not specify that Mr. Maduro\u2019s forces lit the fire.<\/p>\n American officials also noted that, whatever the circumstances, they held Mr. Maduro responsible because he blocked the aid trucks that day, punishing Venezuelans in need.<\/p>\n \u201cMaduro is responsible for creating the conditions for violence,\u201d said Garrett Marquis, a spokesman for the National Security Council. \u201cHis thugs denied the entry of tons of food and medicine, while thousands of courageous volunteers sought to safeguard and deliver aid to Venezuelan families.\u201d<\/p>\n The aid shipment created a showdown<\/a> unlike any on the border<\/a> between Colombia and Venezuela in years.<\/p>\n On Feb. 23, Venezuela\u2019s opposition planned to pierce a military blockade by Mr. Maduro, hoping that the president\u2019s security forces would break with him rather than stop much-needed aid. They argued that a cascade of defections in the military would follow, eventually toppling the government.<\/p>\n Instead, Mr. Maduro\u2019s security forces, along with government-aligned gangs, attacked protesters, who came armed with rocks and Molotov cocktails. One of the aid trucks burned in the melee, igniting the bitter war of words over who was responsible.<\/p>\n Mr. Maduro\u2019s government has also made unsubstantiated claims<\/a>, starting with its longstanding insistence that there are no food shortages in Venezuela.<\/p>\n It also claimed that the aid shipment contained expired supplies or American weapons.<\/p>\n But one claim that appears to be backed up by video footage is that the protesters started the fire.<\/p>\n \u201cThey tried a false flag operation, that supposedly the people of Venezuela had burned a truck carrying rotten food \u2014 no, no, no \u2014 it was they themselves, it was the criminals of Iv\u00e1n Duque,\u201d Mr. Maduro told a crowd, referring to Colombia\u2019s president.<\/p>\n The day of the convoy, Colombia\u2019s government quickly became a chief booster of the theory that Mr. Maduro had been behind the fire. Vice President Marta Luc\u00eda Ram\u00edrez posted a picture of what she said was \u201cone of the trucks incinerated by gangs by order of Maduro.\u201d<\/p>\n After the truck was destroyed, the Colombian government sent CCTV footage from the bridge to American officials and Colombian journalists, according to officials and journalists who received them.<\/p>\n The footage was edited to show circles around Venezuelan security forces throwing tear gas canisters, which explode on impact, toward the aid convoy. Subsequent images show the truck erupting into smoke, implying that it was the Venezuelan officials who were responsible.<\/p>\n But the footage distributed by the Colombian government removes the 13-minute period before the fire begins. Officials from Mr. Duque\u2019s office did not release the full video after repeated requests from The Times.<\/p>\n Protesters who threw Molotov cocktails from the bridge insisted that Mr. Maduro\u2019s forces, not their homemade bombs, set the fire.<\/p>\n Junior Jos\u00e9 Quevedo, 23, said he had arrived at 7 a.m. that day and tried to talk policemen into allowing the aid to pass. \u201cBut then another armed group came of colectivos,\u201d he said, referring to government-aligned gangs.<\/p>\n Adalberto Rond\u00f3n, another bomb thrower on the bridge that day, said it was national guardsmen who lit the fire.<\/p>\n The same account was widely picked up that day by American officials.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/bridge.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n