REUTERS/Carlos Eduardo Ramirez
A man carries a child as people line up to cross over the Simon Bolivar international bridge to Colombia to take advantage of the temporary border opening in San Antonio del Tachira, Venezuela, July 17, 2016.
For the second time in as many weeks, Venezuelans flooded across their country's western border into Colombia, searching for vital goods like food and medicine that are all but nonexistent in their country.
After a 12-hour opening of the border last Sunday, during which 35,000 Venezuelans crossed the frontier, Venezuelan authorities opened the border (which has been closed since August 2015) on Saturday, a day earlier than planned, to avoid the build-up of people at the crossings, according to the BBC.
The opening lasted into Sunday, and reports indicate that some 123,000 people crossed the border over the weekend.
The opening last weekend was prompted by a protest crossing a few days prior, which saw hundreds of women clad in white march across a bridge connecting Venezuela's western Tachira state (one of Venezuela's most restive regions) with Cúcuta, a Colombian city of about 600,000.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, according to Tachira state Gov. Jose Vielma Mora, authorized the opening "because we want to have a peaceful border, with reciprocity from the Colombian side, where contraband and the entry of Venezuelan food to the Colombian side is not permitted," referring to smuggling that is rampant along the border.
Colombian officials seemed to welcome the influx of Venezuelans, with authorities on the ground calling it a "humanitarian corridor."