VENEZUELAN President Nicolas Maduro has urged his country’s five million Colombian immigrants to form a “movement for peace.”

Mr Maduro spoke after his Colombian counterpart Juan Manuel Santos attacked Venezuela’s crackdown on paramilitaries who have infiltrated the country, funded by Colombia’s ruling class.

“I want all of you to help me in an important task. Let’s look for all the hard-working and honest Colombians that live in our homeland and let’s build a movement of Colombians in Venezuela to defend sovereignty, peace in Venezuela,” Mr Maduro said on Tuesday.

The campaign began last week but intensified after three soldiers searching for smugglers were wounded in an ambush.

The socialist president stressed that the five million Colombians who had fled their homeland to escape poverty and right-wing death squads over the last 16 years were welcome in Venezuela.

“The exodus of Colombians coming to Venezuela is the largest that exists in the world today,” he said.

“The Colombian people are fleeing war, paramilitaries and misery, and they have come here by the millions.”

Mr Maduro warned of a propaganda campaign to sow division between the two nations.

Earlier, Mr Santos had compared Venezuela’s expulsion of criminals to ethnic cleansing.

Mr Maduro responded: “President Santos, you’re being fooled. The Colombian oligarchy lies about Venezuela.”

He added: “I will not allow more paramilitary attacks, attacks from criminal gangs against our economy.”