Caracas, Venezuela – Clashes erupted in Caracas on Tuesday between anti-government protesters and law enforcement officers after Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó appeared alongside soldiers at a military base and called for the population to rise up against the president.
In a direct challenge to the government, Guaidó said in a video posted on social media: “Today, brave soldiers, brave patriots, brave men attached to the constitution have followed our call.”
He has called before for the military to rise up against the government of President Nicolás Maduro, but doing so flanked by men in uniform, at a military base in the heart of the capital, was a new step. With few exceptions, the military has so far protected Maduro.
Guaidó claimed that “the definitive end of the usurpation starts today,” but it was not clear how many civilians or soldiers would heed him. “We are counting on the people of Venezuela today,” he said in the video. “The armed forces are clearly on the side of the people.”
Jorge Rodríguez, the government’s information minister, said on Twitter that the government was “confronting and deactivating a small group of military traitors” that he said had taken over the base “to promote a coup.” He blamed the “coup-mongering ultraright,” which he said had pushed for a violent agenda for months in Venezuela.
Behind Guaidó, who has described himself since January as the country’s interim president, stood Leopoldo López, a member of his party who received a nearly 14-year sentence after staging protests in 2014 and has been held by the government under house arrest. López did not speak in the video but issued messages on Twitter saying that he had been released by soldiers.
“I was released by the military on the order of the constitution and President Guaidó,” he wrote in his first Twitter posts since 2017. “Everyone mobilize. It’s time to conquer for freedom.”
Speaking to reporters near the airstrip, Guaidó said that a wide swath of the military now backed him, including top commanders, but he declined to release their names.
Guaidó said he had had no communication with Maduro.
Pro-government armed groups and protesters had encircled Maduro’s presidential palace by mid-morning.
In other parts of the city, national guard soldiers and policemen fought against anti-government protesters.
In a direct challenge to the government, Guaidó said in a video posted on social media: “Today, brave soldiers, brave patriots, brave men attached to the constitution have followed our call.”
He has called before for the military to rise up against the government of President Nicolás Maduro, but doing so flanked by men in uniform, at a military base in the heart of the capital, was a new step. With few exceptions, the military has so far protected Maduro.
Guaidó claimed that “the definitive end of the usurpation starts today,” but it was not clear how many civilians or soldiers would heed him. “We are counting on the people of Venezuela today,” he said in the video. “The armed forces are clearly on the side of the people.”
Jorge Rodríguez, the government’s information minister, said on Twitter that the government was “confronting and deactivating a small group of military traitors” that he said had taken over the base “to promote a coup.” He blamed the “coup-mongering ultraright,” which he said had pushed for a violent agenda for months in Venezuela.
Behind Guaidó, who has described himself since January as the country’s interim president, stood Leopoldo López, a member of his party who received a nearly 14-year sentence after staging protests in 2014 and has been held by the government under house arrest. López did not speak in the video but issued messages on Twitter saying that he had been released by soldiers.
“I was released by the military on the order of the constitution and President Guaidó,” he wrote in his first Twitter posts since 2017. “Everyone mobilize. It’s time to conquer for freedom.”
Speaking to reporters near the airstrip, Guaidó said that a wide swath of the military now backed him, including top commanders, but he declined to release their names.
Guaidó said he had had no communication with Maduro.
Pro-government armed groups and protesters had encircled Maduro’s presidential palace by mid-morning.
In other parts of the city, national guard soldiers and policemen fought against anti-government protesters.
Georgetown – The US Embassy in Georgetown Monday issued a stinging rebuke of the National Assembly’s motion passed last Friday, expressing sympathy on the passing of convicted terrorist plotter and former PNCR Member of Parliament, Abdul Kadir. The Embassy sees this move as an attempt by the government to rehabilitate Kadir’s image and diminish his criminality.
The statement said: “The U.S. Embassy in Georgetown condemns the resolution by Guyana’s National Assembly, reportedly honoring the life and work of convicted terrorist Abdul Kadir. Kadir was sentenced to life in prison in the United States after being found guilty of plotting a 2007 terrorist attack at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. Members of the National Assembly, therefore, chose to honor a man who conspired to kill innocent people from across the United States and around the world. This resolution is an insensitive and thoughtless act, which demonstrates the National Assembly’s disregard for the gravity of Kadir’s actions.
“While speaking at an International Peace Conference recently, U.S. Ambassador Sarah-Ann Lynch held up Guyana as ‘a model to the world on religious tolerance and understanding.’ The National Assembly’s resolution of April 26 draws into question that reputation. It also comes on the heels of Guyana’s historic cooperation with the United States on the extradition of an alleged murderer. Members of Parliament have placed this resolution in direct contradiction to the efforts of security cooperation between our two countries.
“With this resolution, honoring a convicted terrorist, members of Guyana’s National Assembly have left a stain on their legacy as representatives of the Guyanese people and on their commitment to the rule of law.”
With the opposition’s boycott of Parliament only government members voted on the resolution. The two who spoke on the motion were Valerie Adams-Yearwood and Audwin Rutherford, both from Linden where Kadir spent much of his life.
The statement said: “The U.S. Embassy in Georgetown condemns the resolution by Guyana’s National Assembly, reportedly honoring the life and work of convicted terrorist Abdul Kadir. Kadir was sentenced to life in prison in the United States after being found guilty of plotting a 2007 terrorist attack at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. Members of the National Assembly, therefore, chose to honor a man who conspired to kill innocent people from across the United States and around the world. This resolution is an insensitive and thoughtless act, which demonstrates the National Assembly’s disregard for the gravity of Kadir’s actions.
“While speaking at an International Peace Conference recently, U.S. Ambassador Sarah-Ann Lynch held up Guyana as ‘a model to the world on religious tolerance and understanding.’ The National Assembly’s resolution of April 26 draws into question that reputation. It also comes on the heels of Guyana’s historic cooperation with the United States on the extradition of an alleged murderer. Members of Parliament have placed this resolution in direct contradiction to the efforts of security cooperation between our two countries.
“With this resolution, honoring a convicted terrorist, members of Guyana’s National Assembly have left a stain on their legacy as representatives of the Guyanese people and on their commitment to the rule of law.”
With the opposition’s boycott of Parliament only government members voted on the resolution. The two who spoke on the motion were Valerie Adams-Yearwood and Audwin Rutherford, both from Linden where Kadir spent much of his life.
