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| Venezuela: Guaidó pledges end of Maduro in video flanked by soldiers | Venezuela: Guaidó pledges end of Maduro in video flanked by soldiers |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| A military uprising appeared to be under way in Venezuela on Tuesday morning after opposition leader Juan Guaidó posted a video of himself flanked by soldiers, promising the end of the regime of President Nicolás Maduro. | |
| Venezuela opposition leader claims coup is under way – live news | |
| “The moment is now,” Guaidó said in a three-minute speech, apparently filmed just before dawn near La Carlota, the main military airbase in Caracas. “We are going to achieve liberty and democracy for Venezuela.” | |
| Standing beside Guaidó as he spoke was Leopoldo López, an opposition politician who is meant to be under house arrest. | Standing beside Guaidó as he spoke was Leopoldo López, an opposition politician who is meant to be under house arrest. |
| As the video ended, the camera panned back to show a few dozen troops lined up, apparently in front of armoured troop carriers. | As the video ended, the camera panned back to show a few dozen troops lined up, apparently in front of armoured troop carriers. |
| En el marco de nuestra constitución. Y por el cese definitivo de la usurpación. https://t.co/3RD2bnQhxt | En el marco de nuestra constitución. Y por el cese definitivo de la usurpación. https://t.co/3RD2bnQhxt |
| However, in a possible sign that Guaidó can only count on the support of a portion of the military, he called on Venezuelans to come out into the streets in a show of non-violent force. | |
| “People of Venezuela, its necessary that we all go out into the streets, to support democracy and recover our liberty. Organised and united, we should move to the main military installations,” he said, calling on those in the capital to head to the air base where he made the recording. “People of Caracas, everyone to La Carlota”. | “People of Venezuela, its necessary that we all go out into the streets, to support democracy and recover our liberty. Organised and united, we should move to the main military installations,” he said, calling on those in the capital to head to the air base where he made the recording. “People of Caracas, everyone to La Carlota”. |
| “The armed forces have taken the correct decision, they can count on the support of the people of Venezuela, the support of our constitution, the guarantee that they are on the right side of history,” he said in a statement on Twitter. | “The armed forces have taken the correct decision, they can count on the support of the people of Venezuela, the support of our constitution, the guarantee that they are on the right side of history,” he said in a statement on Twitter. |
| The opposition leader Juan Guaidó was almost unknown both inside and outside Venezuela until the start of this year. | |
| Guaidó was made chairman of the national assembly in January because it was the turn of his party, Voluntad Popular (People’s Will). At 35, he was a junior member of his party but its leaders were either under house arrest, in hiding or in exile. | |
| He declared himself "interim president" that month, resting his claim on a clause in the constitution that allows the legislature to take power temporarily and call new elections if it deems the president to be failing to fulfil basic duties or to have vacated the post. | |
| Guaidó's relative obscurity initially proved an advantage in a country where the opposition has generally failed to distinguish itself, losing its nerve at critical moments, succumbing to infighting, and getting involved in a failed coup against Hugo Chávez in 2002. | |
| He inspired a huge wave of protests inside Venezuela with a message of peaceful change, and won widespread international support. Countries from Europe to the US and regional powers recognised him as Venezuela's legitimate president, handing him control of bank accounts and Venezuelan assets along with the formal recognition. | |
| As months dragged on however, Guaidó's hope of winning a wave of military defections that would end the rule of Nicolás Maduro seemed to fade, leaving his movement in an uneasy limbo - self-declared president but with no power. | |
| He raised concerns inside Venezuela and internationally when he appeared to hint at the possibility of military intervention after a failed attempt to bring humanitarian aid into the country in February. | |
| Questions have also been raised about the bedfellows Guaidó has chosen in what he calls his bid to rescue Venezuela. His main international backer is Donald Trump. | |
| Another key regional supporter is Brazil’s far-right firebrand president, Jair Bolsonaro, known for his hostility to human rights and his fondness for dictatorship. Despite these characteristics, Guaidó has praised what he called Bolsonaro’s “commitment to and for democracy [and] human rights”. | |
| Speaking outside the airforce base – a key military installation at the heart of Caracas – López said: “Today the people are very clear that things need to change. | |
| “The people and the armed forces are going to achieve an end to the usurpation, a transition government and free elections,” he added to cries of “Free, Venezuela!” | |
| Venezuela: ha iniciado la fase definitiva para el cese de la usurpación, la Operación Libertad. He sido liberado por militares a la orden de la Constitución y del Presidente Guaidó. Estoy en la Base La Carlota. Todos a movilizarnos. Es hora de conquistar la Libertad. Fuerza y Fe pic.twitter.com/Awm6P09ZM0 | |
| Venezuela’s information minister Jorge Rodríguez said on Twitter that the government was confronting a small group of “military traitors” seeking to promote a coup. | Venezuela’s information minister Jorge Rodríguez said on Twitter that the government was confronting a small group of “military traitors” seeking to promote a coup. |
| Rodríguez accused what he called “the coup-mongering, murderous far right” of being behind the uprising and called on the people to stand with Venezuela’s “glorious” armed forces as they sought to “deactivate” it. | Rodríguez accused what he called “the coup-mongering, murderous far right” of being behind the uprising and called on the people to stand with Venezuela’s “glorious” armed forces as they sought to “deactivate” it. |
| Diosdado Cabello, Maduro’s second-in-command, appeared on Venezuela’s state broadcaster VTV to claim the country remained “absolutely calm”. | |
| Cabello called on government supporters to gather outside the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas and vowed that those behind the uprising would be punished. “We will prevail … and they will be treated like a bunch of coup mongers,” he said. | |
| Another top Maduro official, Tarek William Saab, attacked what he called the opposition’s “grotesque” attempt to seize power and claimed it was the work of a “minuscule group” that would be defeated. | |
| Despite being under house arrest, Leopoldo López has played a key role in Juan Guaidó’s sudden ascent from the political margins to Venezuela’s would-be president. | |
| Born in Caracas in 1971, López claims to be a distant relative of Simón Bolívar, the general who liberated Venezuela from Spanish rule in the 19th century. Like many members of the Venezuelan elite, he was educated in the United States, at a boarding school in New Jersey, and later at Harvard. | |
| Returning to Venezuela, he went on to found the People’s Will party. López was elected mayor of the well-off Chacao district of Caracas in 2000 and later re-elected, serving until 2008, when he was barred from re-election by Hugo Chávez. | |
| López has been accused of involvement in the short-lived coup that briefly removed Chávez from power in 2002. | |
| He was arrested in February 2014 after leading protests against Chávez’s handpicked successor Nicolás Maduro, and sent to a maximum security prison where he reportedly spent eight months in solitary confinement. | |
| The move arguably backfired on Maduro, as López became a cause célèbre, his face emblazoned on posters and T-shirts at future anti-government protests. | |
| In 2017, López was transferred to house arrest, which allowed him to communicate directly with other party members, including Juan Guaidó. | |
| It was López who ensured Guaidó would lead the national assembly when Maduro began his second term in early January, and despite his house arrest, López appeared in the video when Guaidó launched his April 2019 coup attempt. | |
| Joe Parkin Daniels | |
| Guaidó, the leader of Venezuela’s opposition-controlled National Assembly, invoked the constitution in January to assume an interim presidency, arguing that Maduro’s re-election in 2018 was illegitimate. | Guaidó, the leader of Venezuela’s opposition-controlled National Assembly, invoked the constitution in January to assume an interim presidency, arguing that Maduro’s re-election in 2018 was illegitimate. |
| He has been traveling outside the capital, Caracas, more and more in recent weeks to try to put pressure on Maduro to step down. | He has been traveling outside the capital, Caracas, more and more in recent weeks to try to put pressure on Maduro to step down. |
| Maduro calls Guaidó a US-backed puppet who wants to oust him in a coup. The government has arrested his top aide, stripped Guaidó of his parliamentary immunity and opened multiple investigations. It has also barred him from leaving the country, a ban Guaidó openly violated earlier this year. | Maduro calls Guaidó a US-backed puppet who wants to oust him in a coup. The government has arrested his top aide, stripped Guaidó of his parliamentary immunity and opened multiple investigations. It has also barred him from leaving the country, a ban Guaidó openly violated earlier this year. |
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| Juan Guaidó | Juan Guaidó |
| Americas | Americas |
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