A Colombian press association sent 52 tons of newsprint to three Venezuelan dailies that are struggling to go to print because of paper shortages.

Since August of last year, at least 10 Venezuelan dailies have gone out of print, while at least 11 have had to reduce their size, according to human rights organization Espacio Publico. Venezuelan newspapers are having a hard time importing newsprint, which isn't produced locally, because of government-imposed restrictions on obtaining U.S. dollars.

"This is part of the government's final strategy to silence independent journalism," Miguel Henrique Otero, the editor in chief of El Nacional, told the Spanish daily El Pais.

In response to the shortages, the Colombian Association of Newspaper and News Media Editors (its Spanish acronym is Andiarios) sent two trucks full of newsprint to three large Venezuelan opposition newspapers, El Nacional, El Impulso and El Nuevo País, on Tuesday.

Andiarios tweeted a picture of the two trucks before they left the city of Cartagena, Colombia, on their way to Caracas, Venezuela.

pic.twitter.com/2XssfI5ePx

— Andiarios (@Andiarios1) April 1, 2014

The shipment is part of a larger Andiarios initiative to support Venezuelan press freedom dubbed "We are all Venezuela. Without press freedom there is no democracy." The initiative encouraged Latin American newspapers to publish a daily page with news taken from Venezuelan newspapers.

"It's not enough to show support with [Venezuelan newspapers] and rebuff the measures that are limiting press freedoms and Venezuelans' right to information," said Nora Sanin, the executive director of Andiarios, in a press release. "We have to act."

The shipment is a six-month loan, as Sanin explained to CNN en Español. The 52 tons, which are made of 75 newsprint paper rolls, are more of a symbolic gesture, as they will only allow the newspapers to keep printing for roughly 15 days, according to Andiarios. But the association hopes that this first shipment will encourage more newspapers around Latin America and the world to loan newsprint to Venezuelan papers.

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