Conflict in Venezuela: how did the Maduro regime neutralize Guaidó's insurgency attempt – 01/05/2019

In an era of growing social desperation and mbadive immigration, the Venezuelan opposition, led by self-proclaimed interim President Juan Guaidó, has tried to give a last push to the paralyzed regime change operation. . designed three months ago in collaboration with the Trump administration to overthrow the government of Nicolás Maduro. It started with a new attempt at a coup d'etat, a small uprising of soldiers at the La Carlota airbase at Altamira (the prosperous stronghold of opposition to the east of Caracas) and at the liberation of Leopoldo López, chief of the close opposition of Guaidó, removed from his home arrest by a group of dissident soldiers.

Later, after mobilizing his supporters near the air base, Guaidó led a march (scheduled for May 1st but advanced) to the Miraflores Palace, territory banned from the opposition since the spring of 2002, when the opposition was organized, following a mobilization of its supporters around the presidential seat the first of more than ten coup attempts against Hugo Chávez.

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Aware that the regime change operation started on January 24 was already out of breath with the close support of Washingtonand after the failure of the attempt to cross the border with American humanitarian aid a month later, Guaidó has taken another bold but very dangerous step by announcing, from an improvised barracks in Altamira, that the "last phase "from what is now starting to call Operation Freedom. After three months during which the Venezuelan armed forces have shown unfailing fidelity to Maduro, with only a thousand defections, mostly private soldiers"The military family, at one point, has taken the plunge," tweeted the young opposition leader.

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But everything indicated, last night, that only a small group of soldiers from La Carlota air base They had joined the military uprising and had encountered opposition from their own comrades inside the barracks. Maduro announced by Twitter At noon in Venezuela, the commanders of all the regional military units had expressed their support for the Bolivarian president.

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Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino announced that the barracks throughout the country were functioning "normally". To emphasize that the "military family" is far from supportive, a group of the same soldiers rebelling he denounced the fact that they had been deceived and did not know that they were participating in an attempted coup d'etat.

As we have seen the testimony of opponents and journalists who responded to the call of Juan Guaidó to focus before the base of Altamira, shots were heard from inside the base, but there were no reports of injuries inside. Violent clashes erupted between Guaidó demonstrators and the Bolivarian National Guard. They used tear gas and crushed a group of demonstrators with paramilitary tanks.

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The release of Leopoldo López (according to some sources, carried out by members of the intelligence services, Sebin, generally faithful to Maduro), is a blow to the president. Scion of a family of the former Venezuelan oligarchy who participated in the coup against Chavez in 2002, he was imprisoned four years ago. to plan violent activities against the state that he calls himself a dictatorship in the first year of Chávez's first government.

After being released, López met Guaidó in Altamira and added calls to supporters to overthrow Maduro in order to move around the base: "I'm at the base of La Carlota. mobilize.It's time to conquer freedom.Force and Faith, "tweeted Lopez, although nothing indicates yesterday that he had entered the same base. Several hours later, it was learned that Leopoldo López had taken refuge at the Chilean embbady and had been transferred to the Spanish embbady.

Diosdado Cabello, a strong man of the ripe government, called the popular neighborhoods of Caracas to go down to the Miraflores Palace, as they did during the coup of 2002.

But the support for the government is no longer what it was and the worsening of social conditions (already characterized by a chronic shortage of food, medicine, power cuts and lack of water) has made many people without sympathy for Guaidó, and much less for Leopoldo López, in fervent defenders of a coup against Maduro.

The humanitarian catastrophe is reflected at the Colombian border, where have crossed nearly four million emigrants, in a flow that has accelerated in recent weeks. "Put Guaidó or someone else, no matter who! We would do better ourselves," said David Lopez, an unemployed 33-year-old who had just arrived by bus from Barquisimeto to San Antonio del Táchira, on the Venezuelan border Barquisimeto was one of the cities in which there were demonstrations yesterday in favor of the coup d'etat.

Andy Robinson – The Vanguardia.

GML