VENEZUELAN authorities arrested 10 alleged Colombian paramilitaries on Sunday in the third day of emergency operations in Tachira state.

The arrestes were part of a crackdown announced by President Nicolas Maduro on Wednesday after three soldiers hunting smugglers were wounded in a paramilitary ambush.

Mr Maduro ordered the closure of a key border crossing to Colombia and ordered an anti-smuggling sweep along the 1,400-mile border.

Tachira Governor Jose Gregorio Vielma Mora told regional broadcaster Telesur that some 500 sites of sexual exploitation — including of children — had also been found during the Peoples’ Liberation Operations.

He added that more than 1,000 undocumented migrants had been returned to Colombia.

Mr Vielma Mora said that hundreds of children had been found without documentation. “Many are used as mules to cross rivers and smuggle over food,” he said.

“The situation is terrible. We are freeing the region of the mafia and the criminal gangs. We have found clandestine locations housing people that have were believed to be kidnapped and also illegal goods,” he said.

Vice-President Jorge Arreaza visited the border town of San Antonio de Tachira on Sunday to “verify the steps that President Nicolas Maduro has taken to protect Tachira and Venezuela.”

Colombian Interior Minister Juan Fernando Cristo also travelled to the border city of Cucuta to oversee humanitarian assistance to the deportees.

Former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe, a fierce critic of the socialist advances in Venezuela, said on Twitter that he planed to travel to Cucuta yesterday to express “solidarity with those mistreated by the dictator.”

But Mr Vielma Mora charged that Uribe “carries a burden on his shoulders for the great many dead” due to Colombian paramilitary activity in Venezuela. “He can do what he wants on his side of Colombia, but not on our border,” he said
Mr Uribe’s presidency from 2002 to 2010 was marked by widespread collusion between security forces and right-wing death squads and murders of trade unionists — despite his pledge to end abuses.

Venezuelan and Colombian foreign ministers will meet tomorrow to discuss the border issues.