A day of high drama and profound uncertainty began shortly before dawn on Tuesday when Guaidó – who has been spearheading a three-month campaign to topple Maduro – posted an online video in which he appeared surrounded by dozens of armed troops near a key military installation in Caracas.
“The time is now,” Guaidó said outside the La Carlota airbase. “We are going to achieve freedom and democracy in Venezuela,” he added, urging supporters to take to the streets.
On Tuesday evening local time, Guaidó reiterated his call for action in a video message to his supporters posted on YouTube.
His said his rallying cry was not a coup but a “peaceful rebellion” and claimed that Maduro no longer had the backing of the armed forces, which have so far mostly remained loyal to the president.
It was unclear how many soldiers had joined Guaidó’s cause, but hundreds of civilian supporters gathered at the airbase, where troops loyal to Maduro fired teargas rounds, prompting a brief exchange of gunfire.
Later, television images showed clashes between government troops and protesters as a national guard armoured car drove into a crowd, leaving several people apparently injured. Other footage showed national guardsmen chasing away demonstrators on a nearby highway.
The head of a medical center near the site of the street battles told the Associated Press that doctors were treating 50 people, about half of whom had injuries from rubber bullets.
Maduro made no public appearance but said that he had spoken with military commanders who had shown him “total loyalty”. He tweeted: “Nerves of steel! I call for maximum popular mobilization to assure the victory of peace. We will win!”
Senior officials took to the airwaves to insist the uprising would fail.
Diosdado Cabello, Maduro’s second in command, claimed Venezuela was in a state of “absolute calm” but called on supporters to gather at the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas “to defend the revolution, to defend Nicolás and to defend the legacy of Hugo Chávez”.
Some 500 Maduro supporters gathered at Miraflores to show their support for the president, including Elsa Aguilar, 50, who travelled down from Jardines de El Valle, a working-class area in west Caracas, at first light.
“As soon as I heard the news I came here to fight for my country against these disasters who want to bring in the US through their lackeys here in Venezuela,” said Aguilar, who said she was a member of the Bolivarian Militia – a group set up under Hugo Chávez in which civilians receive military training. “We’re well-organized and we know what to do in moments like this,” she said.
In Washington, senior US officials declared full-throated support for the fresh attempt to topple Maduro, with Donald Trump tweeting: “The United States stands with the People of Venezuela and their Freedom!”
Russia – which has backed Maduro financially and militarily – accused the Venezuelan opposition of resorting to “violent methods of confrontation”.
“Instead of peacefully settling political differences, they have taken a course designed to whip up conflict, and provoke breaches of public order and clashes involving the armed forces,” the Russian foreign ministry said.
Even among Guaidó’s allies, there were questions about whether his high-stakes gamble would pay off. “After this, they will either be arrested or Maduro will leave,” Brazil’s vice-president, Hamilton Mourão, told reporters. “There is no other way out.”
Those concerns were reinforced later on Tuesday when it emerged that one of the uprising’s key leaders – Guaidó’s mentor, Leopoldo López – had taken refuge in Chilean embassy in Caracas with his family.
However, Antonio Ledezma, a former mayor of Caracas and opposition politician, said López has not requested asylum and was “no longer in the diplomatic residence”.
At an afternoon rally in the city’s Altamira Plaza, Guaidó insisted victory was within sight. “We will advance, we will resist and we will carry on in the streets,” Guaidó vowed, surrounded by a number of green-clad rifle-toting troops who had defected to his side.
“Can we or can’t we?” Guaidó asked supporters. “¡Sí se puede!” they cheered back. (“Yes we can!”)
And there were signs that the rebellion was spreading across the country, with reports of pro-opposition protests in major cities including Valencia, Puerto Ordaz, Barquisimeto as well as Caracas.
As she took to the streets with Venezuela’s tricolor flag draped over her shoulders, Mariana Otero, a 32-year-old homemaker, called on members of Venezuela’s diaspora to return home to watch what she called the liberation of their country.
“We will see each other in a free Venezuela – the Venezuela that we all want,” she said.
Cecilia Fernández, 69, an accountant and professor at a private university in Caracas, said the people of Venezuela were “retaking history”.
She said: “We are a country of liberators. From now, on, we will not stop until we get freedom.”
Venezuela’s long-running political crisis erupted in January after Guaidó, the young head of its opposition-run parliament, proclaimed himself the country’s rightful interim leader, arguing that Maduro had stolen last year’s election and “usurped” power.
Dozens of western governments – including the United States – swung behind Guaidó’s bid to unseat Maduro and it looked as though Maduro’s downfall could be imminent.
In recent weeks, Guaidó’s challenge had appeared to die down, but that impasse ended on Tuesday morning.
Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, called on Venezuela’s armed forces (known in Spanish by the initials FANB) to back Guaidó. “The FANB must protect the constitution and the Venezuelan people. It should stand by the national assembly and the legitimate institutions against the usurpation of democracy. The United States stands with the people of Venezuela,” he tweeted.
Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, who has pledged to do “whatever is possible” to topple Maduro, tweeted his support for the Venezuelan people, who he said were “enslaved by [a] dictatorship”. “Brazil is on the side of the people of Venezuela, President Juan Guaidó and liberty for Venezuelans,” he tweeted.
But Maduro’s allies in the region – including Cuba and Bolivia – expressed support for the embattled leader.
Evo Morales, the Bolivian president, urged Latin American governments “to condemn the coup d’état in Venezuela and keep the violence from claiming innocent lives.” He blamed the US for “provoking violence and death in Venezuela”.
Original Article
Source: theguardian
Author: Tom Phillips Latin America correspondent, and Patricia Torres in Caracas
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