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Venezuela's ambassador to the United Nations, Rafael Ramírez, last November, when he was foreign minister. He said Tuesday that Colombians and other smugglers were "worse than the Mafia."Credit Heinz-Peter Bader/Reuters

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The Venezuelan ambassador to the United Nations offered an impassioned defense on Tuesday of his country’s border closings with Colombia, arguing that illicit trafficking of domestic fuel, food and other goods by Colombian smugglers accounted for 35 percent of all Venezuelan economic output.

The ambassador, Rafael Ramírez, a former foreign minister, energy minister and head of the national oil company, said the action was a response to what he called increasingly brazen acts by Colombian smugglers and other criminals, as well as acquiescence by Colombia’s government.

He said smugglers had been sending 100,000 barrels of inexpensive Venezuelan gasoline and diesel fuel over the border every day and selling it at enormous profits.

In an interview at Venezuela’s United Nations mission, Mr. Ramírez said the smugglers, whom he described as “worse than the Mafia,” had also been profiteering from illicit sales of Venezuelan produce, flour and other goods, which are sold at government-regulated low prices in Venezuela but can fetch much higher prices in Colombia.

“They smuggle 35 percent of our national production, which has taken a tremendous toll on our economy,” Mr. Ramírez said, punctuating his point with photographs on his laptop of what he described as hoarded smuggler contraband, including trucks and boats piled high with barrels of fuel.

Mr. Ramírez also rejected accusations of an anti-Colombian purge and human rights abuses committed by Venezuela. He noted that his country had long taken in Colombian immigrants and refugees from that country’s legacy of guerrilla war, paramilitary violence, mayhem and economic uncertainty.

“It’s very important to know that Venezuela has welcomed over five and a half million Colombians,” Mr. Ramírez said.

He spoke after President Nicolás Maduro moved to expand the border crackdown, closing a major crossing with Colombia near Maracaibo, Venezuela’s second-largest city, in the northwest corner of the country.

Mr. Maduro also declared a state of emergency in parts of the area, which gives added powers to the police and military authorities and restricts some civil liberties, such as the right to protest or hold public gatherings.

Venezuela has deported more than 1,000 Colombians as part of the border crackdown, which began Aug. 19. Many more who were living on the Venezuelan side of the border have returned to Colombia out of fear of being targeted.

While Mr. Maduro and other Venezuelan officials have blamed paramilitaries and criminals for the smuggling, many economists say it is largely a result of government policies that maintain low prices on gasoline and staple goods, creating an incentive for smugglers who can sell them for much more across the border. The plummeting value of the Venezuelan currency, the bolívar, has further fueled the illicit trade, since it makes Venezuelan products that much cheaper by comparison.

Mr. Ramírez was responding to what the Venezuelan government has described as one-sided news coverage about the Venezuelan crackdown, which was ordered by Mr. Maduro after three Venezuelan soldiers in a border city were shot and wounded by what he said were Colombian paramilitaries bent on destabilizing Venezuela.

Venezuelan officials have said that some news accounts about the government’s response lacked balance, and that some editorials, including one in The New York Times, unfairly described Mr. Maduro as having created a crisis to divert attention from the country’s economic problems and his own weakened popularity.

Mr. Ramírez called the smuggling along the border, which stretches more than 1,360 miles, an issue that had been “developing for many years."

At first, Mr. Maduro shut down a section of the border in the state of Táchira, closing two important bridges and deporting more than 1,000 Colombian immigrants.

He also threatened to tear down the houses in a border neighborhood that he said was home to paramilitaries and smugglers.

Mr. Maduro announced the expanded border closing in a television appearance late Monday night.

The crackdown has strained relations between Venezuela and Colombia and provoked sharp exchanges between Mr. Maduro and Colombia’s president, Juan Manuel Santos, who has accused Venezuela of mistreating Colombians.

Contacted by telephone on Tuesday, a resident along the northern border said that military jets had been flying over the area since Monday and that soldiers had established checkpoints on roads, stopping trucks from approaching the border and allowing only smaller vehicles.

The northern border, on both sides, is home to the Wayuu indigenous group. The Wayuu usually move freely across the border, often saying that they do not recognize the distinction between countries.

Many Wayuu have long relied on smuggling to earn a living. They have periodically clashed with the authorities cracking down on smuggling, often accusing the military and government officials of engaging in the same activities while targeting the ethnic group.