Guaidó urges military uprising in Venezuela, but Maduro’s forces hold on

• The News Tribune
• 1 May 2019
• BY NICHOLAS CASEY New York Times

It was the boldest move yet by Juan Guaidó, Venezuela’s opposition leader: At sunrise, he stood flanked by soldiers at an air force base in the heart of the capital, saying rebellion was at hand.

Mutinous security forces supporting him had released the country’s most famed political prisoner. National guardsmen stood at Guaidó’s side as others joined marches to support the protesters they had spent years repressing.

In the streets, anti-government demonstrators clashed with forces loyal to the president amid reports of live fire, rubber bullets and tear gas. A health clinic in Caracas took in 69 people injured during the day. An armored vehicle rammed protesters, but it was not immediately clear how many people were hurt.

Yet at the end of the day, Guaidó fell short of the prize he sought: the toppling of President Nicolás Maduro, who has relied on force, intimidation and widely discredited elections to remain in power.

The events also cast a harsh new light into the division within the armed forces, which puts Venezuela in a precarious position as the country’s political crisis deepens. While the highest ranks of the military dig into their support for Maduro’s government, many rank-and-file soldiers appear willing to defy their commanders and come to the aid of the opposition.

“I think ultimately what we’re going to see coming out of this is both the government and the opposition recognizing that their hands were not as strong as they thought they were,” said Geoff Ramsey, an analyst at the Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights group.

The gamble by Guaidó was brazen: A predawn takeover of a military base in the heart of the capital, Caracas. The deep symbolism of such an act, it was hoped, would help galvanize soldier and citizen alike to end Maduro’s authoritarian rule.

The Trump administration immediately came out in support of the opposition, with the president, vice president and others publicly stating their approval on Twitter. President Donald Trump also threatened “a full and complete” embargo on Cuba if it did not stop what he called “military and other operations for the purpose of causing death and destruction to the Constitution of Venezuela.”

The Trump administration, which has backed Guaidó since he first challenged Maduro’s authority more than three months ago, clearly thought the day would unfold differently.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” said there had been “senior leaders inside the Maduro government that were prepared to leave. They told us as much over the past few weeks.”

He said Maduro “had an airplane on the tarmac, he was ready to leave this morning, as we understand it, and the Russians indicated he should stay.” He offered no evidence.

Since January, Guaidó has run what amounts to a parallel government, counting on support from more than 50 countries, including the United States, even as Maduro remains the

country’s leader. Despite Maduro’s low popularity, however, the opposition’s momentum has been sapped as Guaidó has failed to depose the president or solve the shortages of food, medicine, water and power that plague the country’s 30 million people.

But if there had been any likelihood that top military brass would turn sides Tuesday, it seemed quashed by early afternoon when Padrino López, the defense minister, spoke on television, calling the act “an attempt at a coup, without a doubt, at a mediocre level.”

The defense minister also came flanked by soldiers, but they pledged loyalty to Maduro and vowed to hunt down those responsible.

By afternoon, news spread of another blow to the opposition: Leopoldo López, the political prisoner who heads Guaidó’s party, had fled into the Chilean Embassy, along with his wife, Lilian Tintori. Only hours earlier, López had appeared freed from house arrest imposed by Maduro’s government.

Venezuelans in Caracas said they were bracing for a revived but protracted struggle between Maduro and Guaidó, with an unclear outcome.

“I believe this is very important, but I see apathy and fear in people,” said one protester, Mary Galaviz, 69. “We should not be afraid. In war there is death, but goals are achieved.”

Miriam Segovia, 52, another protester near the military base, said she hoped that the armed forces would “put themselves on the side of the constitution, so we can escape this misery, this hunger and lack of medication.”

The response was far more mixed – and chaotic.

In a video broadcast online, an armored vehicle could be seen accelerating directly into a group of protesters, leaving at least one person lying on the road behind it. In a separate series of photos, an armored vehicle appeared to run over a protester.

Tear gas canisters could be seen detonating near the military base, where about 2,000 people had gathered around noon. About 200 people converged near the president’s Miraflores Palace, in Caracas, in support of Maduro’s government. Some were armed.

At least 69 people were wounded, according to Salud Chacao, one of the hospitals attending them.

The scenes drew condemnations from governments around the region. Eleven countries, including Venezuela’s neighbors Colombia and Brazil, issued a statement denouncing what they called “the indiscriminate use of violence to repress the transition process.”

The countries, known regionally as the Lima Group, encouraged the military to back Guaidó. They called for a meeting to discuss the situation on May 3.

Rocío San Miguel, a security analyst in Caracas, said Guaidó had failed to get the majority of the armed forces to switch sides.

“It took 12 hours, but we saw that the balance of power hadn’t shifted,” San Miguel said. “In the end the scenario they got was that none of the important commanders joined the opposition.”

The fate of López, now hiding in the Chilean Embassy, also promised a new wrinkle going forward.

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