Burning aid footage points to member of Venezuelan opposition

Footage suggests an opposition protester caused the aid to catch fire. Photo / AP

When the Venezuelan opposition tried to deliver aid from Colombia late last month, a truck of supplies caught fire. The US was quick to blame the destruction on President Nicolas Maduro, with US Vice-President Mike Pence tweeting that "the tyrant in Caracas danced as his henchmen murdered civilians & burned food & medicine heading to Venezuelans", while the State Department released a video of the burning aid and said it had been set alight on Maduro's instructions.

However, the New York Times has obtained previously unreleased footage of the incident that appears to show the fire was caused by an opposition protester. It includes previously unreleased footage by the Colombian Government, which had blamed Maduro for the fire.

The Times reports that the new footage allowed for a reconstruction of the incident and suggests that a Molotov cocktail thrown by an anti-government protester was the most likely trigger for the blaze.

"At one point, a homemade bomb made from a bottle is hurled toward the police, who were blocking a bridge connecting Colombia and Venezuela to prevent the aid trucks from getting through," the Times reports.

"But the rag used to light the Molotov cocktail separates from the bottle, flying toward the aid truck instead. Half a minute later, that truck is in flames.

"The same protester can be seen 20 minutes earlier, in a different video, hitting another truck with a Molotov cocktail, without setting it on fire."

The burning of the aid on February 24 led to broad condemnation of the Venezuelan Government.

US Republican Senator Marco Rubio called on Twitter for Maduro to pay: "This is a crime & if international law means anything he must pay a high price for this."

Donald Trump's national security adviser, John Bolton, tweeted: "This has been Maduro's response to peaceful efforts to help Venezuelans. Countries that still recognise Maduro should take note of what they are endorsing."

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wrote: "What kind of a sick tyrant stops food from getting to hungry people? The images of burning trucks filled with aid are sickening."

Venezuela, under crippling sanctions, continues to suffer from food shortages and the situation worsened at the weekend as blackouts affected much of the country. Engineers restored power in some places after electricity and communications were shut down nationwide on Friday evening.

However, reporting on this was also confused by the tweets of American politicians pushing for Maduro to step down. Rubio, who has spent time with the opposition in Colombia, tweeted that: "Today another transformer explosion at the German Dam in Bolivar State caused another massive blackout. The result? Critically ill patients have died, the #Caracas metro remains out of service & few if any flights have arrived at or departed from Caracas in over 20 hours."

There had been an explosion that affected the power grid but there is no German Dam in Bolivar State. There is, however, a South American journalist named German Dam who has been reporting on the blackouts. He pointed out Rubio's mistake on Twitter.

- Agencies