CARACAS — Tens of thousands of anti-government protesters rallied Saturday in a massive show of resolve and unity, escalating the campaign to drive President Nicolás Maduro from power even as the first major defection occurred among his crucial military backers.
The demonstrations alone were unlikely to cause Maduro to buckle. But the open defiance on the streets seeks to keep the pressure on Maduro at home while sending a message to other nations considering throwing their support behind the opposition and its leader, Juan Guaidó.
Opposition leaders also hope that large-scale protests — in combination with international isolation and sanctions — will push Maduro to negotiate his exit or prod the military to force him out.
Guaidó — the head of the opposition-controlled National Assembly that last month proclaimed Maduro a usurper — planned to speak later Saturday European Union envoys as builds that France, Britain and other European powers would join the United States and others to recognize Guaidó as Venezuela’s de facto leader.
Shortly before anti-Maduro demonstrators started to gather on the streets, Maduro received a blow from his inner circle — a senior figure in the armed forces broke publicly from the government.
It marked the most serious act of dissent yet from the military brass, which has so far stood behind Maduro as his main bulwark against the opposition.
In a video circulating social media on Saturday morning, an acting Venezuelan air force general, Francisco Yanez, denounced the “dictatorship” of Maduro and recognized opposition leader Juan Guaidó’s claim as the nation’s legitimate interim leader.
“People of Venezuela, 90 percent of the armed forces are not with the dictator,” Yanez, in uniform, said a video that he appears to have filmed himself. “The transition to democracy is imminent.”
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The Twitter account of Venezuela’s air force, which consistently retweets Maduro and other government officials, released a photo of the video with the word “traitor” in red letters scrawled over Yanez’s face.
“We have to highlight that he has no command over troops and less so over air force units,” an air force tweet said. “He has no leadership at the air force and was only serving planning functions.”
Former Venezuelan general Antonio Rivero, now living exile in Miami, confirmed in a phone interview that the person in the video appeared to be Yanez.
For the opposition, the protests will mark a key test of its ability to sustain a social uprising against Maduro. The anointed successor of leftist Hugo Chávez, who died in 2013, Maduro was sworn in for a new 6-year term last month following elections internationally derided as fraudulent.
Guaidó has evoked constitutional powers declaring himself the nation’s rightful interim leader, setting up a global power play that has seen Russia and Cuba back Maduro while a growing list of Western nations led by the United States back Guaidó.
In an attempt to rally his side, Maduro also brought supporters onto the streets for counter demonstrations marking 20 years of socialist rule.
But it expected to be vastly overwhelmed by the size of the opposition marches in Caracas and elsewhere.
“We are marching because we can’t take this situation any more,” said Carmen Sanchez, a 42-year-old woman who lives in the slum of Petare, as she joined the opposition crowds that appeared to number at least in the tens of thousands, if not more.
“We don’t have enough money for food. This government has to resign for Venezuela to be beautiful again and I have faith Guaido will bring us success,” Sanchez said.
She said the past week at the slum has been terrifying, with security forces raiding homes. “Last week was horrible. They took kids from their homes, we were all threatened,” she said.
Miguel Pizarro, an opposition politician, said demonstrations were occurring in 25 cities nationwide.
“It’s clear that the people have decided to become the protagonists of this fight,” Pizarro said. “In this mobilization we’re not asking the usurper for anything, we’re asking the international community for further support and increasing pressure to open the door for political change.”
At the pro-government march in central Caracas, there were about 300 people at 10:30 a.m. Dressed in red and with ruling party flags, they were marching toward the presidential palace.
“It’s clear that the people have decided to become the protagonists of this fight,” said Miguel Pizarro, an opposition politician, who said demonstrations were occurring in 25 cities nationwide. “In this mobilization we’re not asking the usurper for anything, we’re asking the international community for further support and increasing pressure to open the door for political change.”
Guaidó, a 35-year old industrial engineer, is also expected to outline a plan to ship humanitarian aid into the shattered country, facing widespread hunger and desperation amid an economic collapse.
The Maduro government has long refused aid, denying the extent of the food and medical shortages in the country. But any attempt to move aid across any land border in the coming days is likely to provoke a confrontation.
[Trump’s sanctions hit Venezuela where it hurts: It’s oil.]
The Trump administration has said that no options are “off the table” as it seeks to pressure Maduro to resign. U.S. officials last week threw up new sanctions that effectively cut off Maduro from its most important foreign revenue stream: U.S. oil sales.
“This is no time for dialogue. This is time for action and the time has come to end the Maduro dictatorship,” Vice President Pence tweeted after meeting with Venezuelan exiles in Miami on Friday.
In a radio interview Friday, national security adviser John Bolton suggested Maduro would end up in Guantanamo if he didn’t leave power.
“I wish him a long, quiet retirement on a pretty beach far from Venezuela,” Bolton said. “And the sooner he takes advantage of that, the sooner he’s likely to have a nice, quiet retirement on a pretty beach rather than being in some other beach area like Guantanamo.”
Maduro successfully rode out four months of protests in 2017 after an iron-fisted response left more than 100 dead. Since protests restarted two weeks ago, the government had unleashed another wave of repression that has left at least 35 dead and 850 detained.
But under Maduro, the nation is facing severe hyperinflation and food and medicine shortages that have spread hunger and disease and caused millions to flee the country in recent years. Some Venezuelans are vowing to turn out Saturday regardless of the consequences.
The defection of Yanez, the air force general, suggested new cracks in the military hierarchy that has previously proclaimed steadfast loyalty to Maduro.
Rivero, the exiled general, said Yanez did not appear to command a large contingent of troops, and his strategy remained unclear — as did Yanez’s present whereabouts.
“For now, I see him isolated, he doesn’t have a division behind him,” Rivero said. “He probably has some personnel but not troops. It’s possible he has contacts, but I don’t know what the strategy is . . . but this is still a good message because it lowers the credibility of the top ranking officials’ statements of support.”
On Jan. 21, a group of national guard soldiers took to the streets of a western Caracas slum and filmed themselves calling people to the streets.” They had taken weapons from a military unit. But the small insurrection was quickly squashed, and 27 soldiers were jailed.
That event, however, triggered spontaneous protests in slums across Caracas that night and the following, causing dozens to die as security forces tried to quash them.
Maduro has called for dialogue with the opposition, saying he is willing to meet Guaidó “wherever, whenever, he wants.” But the opposition, which has engaged in fruitless roundtables with the government before, has seen the offer as a ruse to buy time.
Maduro, meanwhile, was bracing this weekend for the prospect of further international diplomatic blows.
The European Parliament already called on the bloc’s member states to recognize Guaidó as Venezuela’s interim president. The E.U. has said it will leave that decision to individual countries, but has moved to form an “international contact group” designed to create the conditions necessary to hold new elections.
Venezuelan opposition lawmakers said they are not expecting the European Union as a bloc to recognize Guaidó, but they are awaiting announcements from key countries as early as Sunday.
Faiola and Krygier reported from Miami.
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