The clash in Parenstu is just one on a border now overwhelmed by Wayuu abandoning Venezuela to go to indigenous lands in Colombia. And it reflects a much broader crisis upending Latin America, where the mass exodus of Venezuelans from all segments of society is testing the patience of their neighbors.

At least four million Venezuelans have fled their country in recent years, forced out by hunger, hyperinflation and deadly political crackdowns. By next year, their departure could outpace the migration from Syria to become the world’s largest refugee crisis, according to the Organization of American States.

The arrivals are taxing their new hosts, who are torn between a desire to help and the instinct to protect their own resources. For the most part, the Venezuelans have found open borders, but in Ecuador and Brazil, large mobs have attacked migrant shelters, evicting them from towns that residents say are being overrun. In Colombia, new migrants, unable to receive medical treatment at home, have brought measles and malaria, diseases that were largely controlled in the country.

“The headlines generate xenophobia,” said Felipe Muñoz, the Colombian official responsible for handling the crisis at the border. More than 1.4 million Venezuelans are now in Colombia, he said, burdening a country that had only 140,000 registered foreigners five years ago and has not had a wave of migrants like this in recent memory.