Colombia calls for emergency plan for Venezuela

DAVOS: Colombia’s finance minister called on Wednesday for an emergency plan to help neigbouring Venezuela after what he said will be its imminent collapse.
“The collapse of the (Venezuelan) economy is close,” minister Mauricio Cardenas told AFP on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“The idea is to have ready an economic plan for Venezuela for the day after,” he added.
“We do not know when that day will come but it will happen quickly due to the seriousness of the crisis.”
He called for a plan involving the Internatonal Monetary Fund or regional lenders to help provide medicine and other essential supplies.
Venezuela is in a desperate economic and political crisis that has caused hunger and deadly violence.
The Colombian government says more than half a million Venezuelans have fled onto its territory.
Venezuela’s governing Constituent Assembly, loyal to Socialist President Nicolas Maduro, said Tuesday the country will hold a presidential election by the end of April.
Maduro hopes to triumph over a divided opposition and win a second term. The opposition says he has turned into a dictator.