VENEZUELANS rallied in support of President Nicolas Maduro yesterday after relations with Colombia took a turn for the worse.

The United Socialist Party called the rally in Caracas as the two countries recalled their ambassadors on Thursday, just a day after reaching a deal to reopen busy border crossings.

In Cartagena on Wednesday, Colombian Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin and her Venezuelan counterpart Delcy Rodriguez agreed on steps to resolve the dispute.

But on Thursday, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos recalled his country’s ambassador to Caracas.

He claimed that Venezuela had refused to let Colombia’s ombudsman visit the border city of San Antonio del Tachira to guarantee the welfare of Colombian immigrants there — one of the terms of the deal.

Mr Santos also requested an emergency meeting of the Union of South American Nations and the Organisation of American States.

Later on Thursday, Ms Rodriguez announced the recall of Venezuela’s ambassador to Bogota, expressing her regret that the progress made with Ms Holguin had been reversed by the “pride of authorities.”

Ms Rodriguez warned that Venezuela would “study our relations with Colombia deeply” in light of “the aggressions our people suffer due to paramilitarism and the economic war.”

Mr Maduro hit back at Mr Santos’s claims that Colombian immigrants were being victimised, revealing that three paramilitary leaders hade been captured in Venezuela.

The crossing at the Simon Bolivar International Bridge was closed last week after suspected Colombian paramilitaries shot and wounded three Venezuelan soldiers.

Since then, about 1,000 Colombian paramilitaries, criminals and undocumented migrants have been rounded up as part of a nationwide crime sweep that began before the shooting incident.

Up to 5,000 others are reported to have fled the crackdown, but that figure only adds up to 0.1 per cent of the five million Colombians who have take refuge in Venezuela in the past 16 years to escape poverty and far-right paramilitary death squads.

Venezuela allows Colombian immigrants access to help with health, education and housing.

There are also five million internally displaced people in Colombia, where almost 30 per cent of the 48-million strong population live in poverty.