URENA, Venezuela, July 7 (UPI) — Hundreds of Venezuelan women rushed through the border with Colombia in search of basic goods amid the country’s ongoing economic crisis.
The BBC reports that about 500 women stormed the border between the Venezuelan city of Urena and Cucuta in Colombia hoping to bring back food and other items.
The women, who were dressed in white T-shirts, organized the operation to cross the border which had been closed for nearly a year on messaging client “WhatsApp.”
“The women of Urena decided to come to the international bridge to cross the border because we don’t have food in our homes, our children are going hungry, there is a lot of need,” one woman told La Opinion, according to The Guardian.
They purchased a number of goods including paper, flour, cooking oil, corn flour and other goods, which have become difficult to find in Venezuela.
Due to the exchange rate between the two countries, the goods the women gathered while in Colombia cost nearly 10 times as much as they would have in Venezuela.
The women then crossed back over the Colombian border with the food and other goods, singing Venezuela’s national anthem and thanking Colombian border security for letting them through.
