Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro urged his troops Saturday to be \u201cready\u201d for potential US military action, as supporters of opposition leader Juan Guaido marched on barracks in a new bid to win the armed forces\u2019 support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Capping a week that saw a failed uprising led by the \nUS-backed Guaido, Maduro instructed the military \u201cto be ready to defend \nthe homeland with weapons in your hands if one day the US empire dares \nto touch this territory, this sacred earth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Underscoring the \ncontinued military support for his socialist regime, Maduro delivered \nhis televised address from a base in northwestern Cojedes state where he\n appeared alongside his defense minister, Vladimir Padrino, and in the \npresence of more than 5,000 troops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Guaido\u2019s cause gained renewed\n support on Saturday from US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who issued a\n video address to the Venezuelan people, telling them: \u201cThe time for \ntransition is now.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou can hold your institutions,\n your military and their leaders to the highest standards and demand a \nreturn to democracy,\u201d Pompeo said in the message.National Assembly head \nGuaido, 35, has branded Maduro a usurper over his controversial \nre-election last year, and in January declared himself acting president,\n plunging Venezuela into a political crisis that deepened its already \ngrave economic woes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Maduro has held firm, bolstered by the \ncontinued support of the powerful armed forces. \u201cI told the generals and\n admirals yesterday: loyalty, I want an active loyalty… I trust you, \nbut keep your eyes open, a handful of traitors cannot tarnish the honor,\n the unity, the cohesion and the image of the armed forces,\u201d the \npresident said in his speech from the military base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Turnout was \nlow, though, in the hundreds rather than thousands. In Barquisimeto in \nthe northeast, the National Guard pushed back marchers with tear \ngas.\u201cThe goal is to carry our message without falling into confrontation\n or provocation,\u201d added Guaido.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This protest came days after \nGuaido tried to incite a military insurrection that fizzled out, with a \ngroup of 25 rebel soldiers seeking refuge in the Brazilian embassy in \nCaracas.The effort triggered two days of clashes between opposition \nsupporters and government forces that left four people dead and hundreds\n injured.The country\u2019s chief prosecutor Tarek William Saab said on \nFriday that 18 arrest warrants had been issued for \u201ccivilian and \nmilitary conspirators\u201d following the failed uprising, with lieutenant \ncolonels among the uniformed personnel being sought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re \nasking the armed forces to help us end the usurpation and join the \npeople,\u201d unemployed 53-year-old Dina Alonso told AFP as a group of women\n unsuccessfully attempted to pass on to the National Guard in \nBarquisimeto a document containing Guaido\u2019s proclamation to the military\n to abandon Maduro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tensions in Venezuela have soared since \nGuaido invoked the constitution to declare himself acting president. As \nmajor world powers have been drawn in, the US has thrown its support \nbehind Guaido and Russia and China have backed Maduro.\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro urged his troops Saturday to be \u201cready\u201d for potential US military action, as supporters of opposition leader Juan Guaido marched on barracks in a new bid to win the armed forces\u2019 support. Capping a week that saw a failed uprising led by the US-backed Guaido, Maduro instructed the military \u201cto be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":60666,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60665"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60667,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60665\/revisions\/60667"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}