Buoyed by the defection of a top general, Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido on Saturday said that this month would be “decisive” in determining the future of the nation as he and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro held competing mass rallies in the capital, Caracas.
Venezuelan National Assembly head Guaido, 35, had called the protest to ramp up the pressure on Maduro to step down, 10 days after stunning the world by declaring himself “interim president” of the oil-rich, but crisis-wracked country.
He received a boost before it began when a Venezuelan air force general became the highest ranking officer to abandon Maduro and recognize Guaido as the country’s true leader.
Photo: AFP
US National Security Adviser John Bolton responded to that in a tweet calling on “all military members to follow General [Francisco] Yanez’s lead.”
The US on Jan. 23 recognized Guaido as Venezuela’s interim president, while four major European nations — the UK, France, Germany and Spain — have said they were to do likewise unless Maduro calls presidential elections, with a deadline passing by press time last night.
Speaking at a pro-regime demonstration marking 20 years since his predecessor Hugo Chavez came to power, Maduro ignored the demands and instead reiterated his call to bring forward legislative elections slated for the end of next year to this year.
Photo: AP
“They [the opposition] want to bring forward elections, let’s have elections,” he said.
Maduro, making his first public appearance since a military parade in August last year when he claimed to have been targeted in an attempted assassination, accused Guaido of being a US “puppet” in a coup attempt.
The National Assembly is the only one of Venezuela’s five government branches controlled by the opposition.
Guaido had earlier urged the armed forces to allow humanitarian aid from abroad into the country.
“You, soldier ... have the decision in your hands” to allow it in or not, Guaido said.
The US on Saturday said it would transport aid to the country in response to a request by Guaido.
Under Maduro’s stewardship, oil-dependent Venezuela has lurched into an economic crisis that has left the country suffering from hyperinflation and shortages of food and medicine.
Maduro refuses to let aid into Venezuela, claiming it would precede a US-led military intervention.
Guaido called for a new demonstration on Tuesday next week.
Speaking at the EU’s headquarters in the east of the capital, he said this month “should be decisive.”
The rival Caracas rallies, separated by 10km, attracted huge crowds.
Carlos Morales, a 62-year-old who voted for Chavez in 1998, but now says socialism only brings “misery,” attended a pro-Guaido rally with his wife.
“This is the leader that all Venezuelans hoped for, a new leader, young, who is not contaminated,” he said.
At the pro-Maduro demonstration, Virginia Rondon, 69, hummed songs that glorified Chavez and reminisced about his socialist revolution, saying: “I never experienced anything more beautiful in all my years.”
Others denounced the specter of US intervention.
Early on Saturday, Yanez said in a social media video that he disavowed Maduro’s “dictatorial” authority and recognized Guaido as the acting president.
“Ninety percent of the armed forces don’t support the dictator,” the Venezuelan air force high command strategic planning director said.
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