Venezuela’s Juan Guaido asks supporters to rally military

Opposition leader Juan Guaido will make a fresh bid on Saturday to rally Venezuela‘s armed forces behind him calling on his supporters to march to military bases and barracks.

The protest call by the head of the National Assembly legislature – who is recognised as interim president by more than 50 countries – comes just days after he urged the military to rise up against the socialist president.

“Peacefully, civically … we are going to deliver a simple document, a proclamation to the Armed Forces to listen to the Venezuelan call, that a rapid transition is possible to produce free elections,” Guaido told a press conference in Caracas on Friday.

“The call is to add and not to confront, to ask the military to be on the side of the constitution,” he said on Twitter.

¡Calle permanente y sostenida!
Mañana a las 10:00 am, todo el país se moviliza en paz a las principales unidades militares. El llamado es a sumar y no enfrentar, a que se pongan del lado de la constitución.
Anunciaremos los puntos en @Presidencia_VE. #VzlaEnPieDeLucha

— Juan Guaidó (@jguaido) May 3, 2019

A small group of military personnel responded to Guaido’s call to join him on Tuesday, but the effort petered out, triggering two days of protests against the government in which four people were killed and several hundred injured.

Military supports Maduro

Also on Tuesday, Leopoldo Lopez, a politician and Guaido’s mentor who was arrested during a protest movement in 2014 and transferred to house arrest in 2017, appeared together with Guaido and dozens of soldiers after escaping his home and before seeking refuge at the Spanish ambassador’s residence.

Venezuela’s military has since reiterated its support for the government, and President Maduro is standing his ground.

“Do not come to buy us with a dishonest offer, as if we do not have dignity,” Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino said.

The country’s attorney general Tarek William Saab said on Friday that 18 arrest warrants had been issued for “civilian and military conspirators” following the failed uprising, with lieutenant colonels among the uniformed personnel being sought.

However, analysts say the actions of the military reveal the uncertainty of the current situation.

“What happened on April 30, displays the fragility of the system at this moment,” Ramon Pinango, a Venezuelan sociologist told Al Jazeera.

“How is it possible that Leopoldo Lopez was under house arrest, with officers in front of his house, and he was able to walk out, and be in the streets for a good part of the day?” he added. 

Tensions in Venezuela have soared since Guaido invoked the Constitution to declare himself acting president on January 23, claiming Maduro’s re-election last year was illegitimate.

The standoff has drawn in major world powers, with the US throwing its support behind Guaido and Russia and China backing Maduro.

The United States has imposed tough sanctions and President Donald Trump has refused to take the threat of military action off the table, in an intensifying campaign to drive Maduro out.

But Trump adopted a strikingly conciliatory tone after a more-than-hour-long conversation with Vladimir Putin on the Venezuela crisis, describing the Friday talks with his Russian counterpart as “very positive”.

“He is not looking at all to get involved in Venezuela other than he’d like to see something positive happen for Venezuela,” Trump said of Putin.

“And I feel the same way. We want to get some humanitarian aid. Right now people are starving.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is scheduled to hold talks with his Venezuelan counterpart, Jorge Arreaza, in Moscow on Sunday.

‘Interference in internal affairs’ 

Venezuela has suffered five years of recession marked by shortages of basic necessities as well as failing public services, including water, electricity and transport.

Trump’s tone came in stark contrast to that of his top advisers, in particular, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who charged this week that Maduro had been poised to flee to Cuba, but was talked out of it by the Russians.

US-Russian tensions have spiked over the months-long standoff in Venezuela, and the Kremlin’s assessment of the Trump-Putin call differed substantially from that coming from the White House.

“Interference in internal affairs, attempts to change the leadership in Caracas through force, undermine the prospects for a peaceful settlement of the conflict,” said a Russian statement.

“Vladimir Putin stated that only the Venezuelan people have the right to decide the future of their country,” it added.

The US is insisting Maduro’s days are numbered, but experts say its options for breaking the stalemate are limited, and that Washington may have overestimated the opposition leader’s strength.