Brazil-Venezuela Border Reopens Amid Fight Over Refugees

RIO DE JANEIRO — One of the main border crossings between Brazil and Venezuela reopened Tuesday after a legal fight that kept it shuttered it for nearly a day. It was the latest salvo in a tug-of-war between a state government overwhelmed by hundreds of Venezuelans arriving every day to escape their country's economic crisis and the federal government and higher courts, which insist the border must stay open. The crossing in the Brazilian city of Pacaraima was closed Monday after Judge Helder Girao Barreto ruled it should be closed until a program to relocate Venezuelan refugees can keep pace
with daily arrivals. That decision was reversed by an appellate court, and in a statement federal police said Tuesday the migration patterns had returned to normal.