As tensions between Venezuela and Colombia continue to escalate, ambassadors from both countries have been recalled.

Last week Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro closed the border crossings that link the nations, after a shootout between smugglers and troops wounded three soldiers. Soon after, he extended the closings indefinitely.

Juan Manuel Santos, the president of Colombia, addressed the situation on Thursday, saying, “I have favoured dialogue and diplomacy and I will keep doing so, but I cannot allow Venezuela to treat Colombia and Colombians this way.”

Nearly 1,100 Colombians living in Venezuela have been deported since the border closure. Beyond this count, Santos said that between 5,000 and 6,000 Colombians have left the socialist country voluntarily.

“These families aren’t paramilitaries, they are humble families,” Santos said, as reported in The Guardian, “And they were thrown out, as they said to me, like dogs.”

Once Santos announced that he would recall Colombia’s ambassador, Venezuela followed by ordering the recall of Venezuela’s ambassador to Bogota.

Maduro says the deportations are part of a necessary crackdown on Colombian paramilitaries, who smuggle fixed-price goods and move drugs along the border. Speaking at a rally on Thursday, Maduro expressed his hope that the Colombian government would “regain its sanity.”

“Until that happens, I won’t open the border,” he said. 

Beyond simply keeping the already closed borders shut, Maduro has extended border closures with Colombia to another six towns in the western state of Táchira. The towns that will experience the closures are Lobatera, San Juan de Colón, La Fría, Garcia de Hevia, Panamericana and Coloncito.

As reported in the BBC, the 52-year-old Venezuelan leader has announced the deployment of an extra 3,000 troops in the area to enforce the martial law.

Santos, who has been critical of the closures, has called for an emergency meeting of foreign ministers from the The Union of South American Nations to discuss the crisis.