John Otis:

Well yes it is a quite significant news for desperate Venezuelans because when you have these border bridges blocked they're actually blocked with shipping containers so people couldn't get across the bridges but they would still get into Colombia and they would have to use these clandestine footpaths used by drug smugglers. These are rivals smuggling gangs and they're often the shootouts along these trails it was quite dangerous. And also Venezuelans tried to get across the Colombian side they'd have to cross the Táchira River, which forms the border. And I was up there recently and they'd be wading across the river you know up to their chest in water. I met one woman who was bringing her son across the border across the river just bringing him across the border to go to a daycare center on the Colombian side. She had to cross the river once to drop her son off and go back to the Venezuelan side to work to cross again in the afternoon to pick up her son and then come home in the evening. That was four times crossing the river as you could see just how tough it can get to get into Colombia with those borders officially closed but now they're opening up again.