Venezuela on Wednesday temporarily shut down major border crossings with neighboring Colombia after three soldiers were attacked while looking for smugglers.

Embattled Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced that three San Antonio del Táchira checkpoints would remain closed for 72 hours and promised a special mission to help protect citizens living along the 1,400-mile border, the Associated Press reported. The scene has frequently experienced violence due to Colombia's long-running conflict with leftist guerrillas, as well as the presence of drug-trafficking gangs.

Maduro's decision was a reaction to the attack on three army officers who had been carrying out patrols near San Antonio, a border town of about 50,000 inhabitants. The president claimed that assailants shot two lieutenants and a captain from behind and then fled.

"They were ambushed by two motorcyclists that we're now looking for, even underneath the rocks," Maduro said.

"It's outrageous ... everyone should show solidarity with the armed forces; the military personnel who are at the border to defend the homeland," the president told state broadcaster VTV, according to the semi-official Telesur TV network. "Enough of paramilitary terrorism! It's time for justice for Táchira."

Traffic near the blocked checkpoints had come to a virtual halt by Thursday, Venezuela's El Nacional detailed. 

"The crossings over the Simón Bolívar International Bridge in (Táchira's state capital of) San Cristobal, over the Francisco Paula Santander Bridge in Ureña and Unión International Bridge in Boca de Grita remain closed, and the three access points are being patrolled by the military," correspondent Eleonora Delgado said.

The Venezuelan government earlier this year decided to close the border in Táchira at night and deployed more troops and toughened jail sentences for those caught smuggling. More than 6,000 individuals have been arrested for smuggling in the past year, and some 28,000 tons of food have been seized in anti-smuggling operations, official statistics claim.

Opposition critics claim that much of the problem issue is due to Venezuela's price and currency controls, which incentivize smugglers to buy goods at ultra-low prices in Venezuela to sell them for huge profits in neighboring Colombia.