International border
The
Brazil?Venezuela border
is the limit that separates the territories of
Brazil
and
Venezuela
. It was delimited by the Treaty of Limits and River Navigation of May 5, 1859 and ratified by the Protocol of 1929.
[1]
The geographical boundary begins at the triple point between Brazil-Colombia-Venezuela at Cucuy Rock and continues up the Maturaca channel to the Hua waterfall; it then follows a straight line to the top of a mountain called Cerro Cupi. It then follows the crest of the
drainage divide
between the
Orinoco
and
Amazon
river basins
up to the Brazil-
Guyana
-Venezuela border tripoint on top of
Mount Roraima
, thus covering a total of 2,199 kilometres (of which 90 km are conventional boundaries and the other 2,109 km correspond to the watershed between the basins of the Amazon (Brazil) and Orinoco (Venezuela)) through the Imeri, Tapirapeco, Curupira and Urucuzeiro mountain ranges (Brazilian state of
Amazonas
), and the Parima, Auari, Urutanim and
Pacaraima
ranges (State of
Roraima
), in the
Guiana Shield
.
[2]
Historically, Brazil and Venezuela have both made land
claims for the western portion of Guyana
, referred to as the Guayana Esequiba by Venezuela. The tributaries of the Amazon that extend into Guyana were claimed by Brazil but this was settled during the Pirara arbitration in 1904. The Venezuelan claim to the area is not officially recognized by Brazil, and Guyana exerts effective control over the disputed region.
The internationally recognized border is mostly located in remote and inaccessible wilderness areas, and it has only one road crossing, between the towns of
Pacaraima
(Brazil) and
Santa Elena de Uairen
(Venezuela), where the Brazilian
BR-174
federal highway from
Boa Vista
and
Manaus
joins the Venezuelan
Troncal 10
from
Ciudad Guayana
and
Caracas
.
Recent developments
[
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]
Roraima
, Brazil's northernmost state, experienced
a large influx
of Venezuelan
immigrants
along its border in 2018. On August 7, the regional government requested that the
Supreme Federal Court of Brazil
close the border, and later that day the Supreme Federal Court denied the request on
constitutional
grounds.
[3]
[4]
On February 22, 2019, amid the
Venezuelan presidential crisis
, President
Nicolas Maduro
closed the border to prevent international humanitarian aid from reaching Venezuela by land.
[5]
In May 2019, the Venezuelan government announced the re-opening of the border.
[6]
2020 coronavirus pandemic
[
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]
On March 16, 2020, President
Jair Bolsonaro
partially closed the border with Venezuela because of the
COVID-19 pandemic
to slow the spread, as the epidemic has advanced in Brazil with 291 confirmed cases and the first death reported on Tuesday.
[7]
Health Minister
Luiz Henrique Mandetta
had urged closure of the border due to Venezuela's collapsing health system.
[8]
On March 17, 2020, the Venezuelan government implemented a nationwide quarantine after detecting 16 new cases of the novel coronavirus, President
Nicolas Maduro
said, adding that the total number of cases in the South American country has risen to 33, had begun a quarantine in a handful of states.
[9]
References
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]
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Land borders
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Land and maritime borders
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Maritime borders
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