The Venezuelan opposition demanded its support for the military and Maduro urged them to show loyalty – 05/04/2019

The tension continues to grow in Venezuela, with the army becoming the central protagonist of claims on both sides. Nicolás Maduro tries to keep the support of the armed forces, more and more divided, while the leader of the opposition, Juan Guaidó, tries to win them for his sector.

Yesterday, summoned by Guaidó, the Venezuelans returned to the main districts of the capital to ask the troops to break with Maduro and stop obeying their orders. For its part, the president led an act in which he demanded "loyalty" to the uniforms and urged them to prepare to fight against a possible attack from the United States.

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During the day, it was possible to see groups of demonstrators who had come to the military bases to proclaim the proclamation in which Guaidó asked the armed forces to support a transitional government led by him. However, the uniforms refused to receive them. In some places, they even set fire to the statement before people claimed it was a "betrayal of the homeland".

In several parts of Caracas, opponents gathered to advance to the units, although there were no large concentrations. On the contrary, most were very small. Guaidó emphasized the peaceful nature of the day. "The goal was to carry our message without falling into confrontation or provocation," he tweeted.

In January, Guaidó had already organized mobilisations with military detachments to disseminate the text of this standard. Almost all of them ended in the same way: broken or burned by the army. "I do not believe that it will lead to a collapse of the army," acknowledged Marcos Rodríguez, one of the opposition activists, but added that this type of action " contributes to the near completion of a more ambitious project ".

In response to this initiative, Maduro met with the High Command and about 5,300 soldiers at the El Pao Training Center in the state of Cojedes. There, the president asked the army "to be ready to defend the country with arms in hand if the American empire dares to touch this country".

After claiming that Guaidó was part of a plot led by Washington to overthrow him, he had launched: # "The Yankee Empire or Chavista Venezuela is the center of the main contradiction of this historical era".

Chavez's leader accused Washington of leading an "unconventional war" to weaken his government. "They have a plot with a lot of money to weaken, divide and destroy the Bolivarian National Armed Forces from the inside with a group of traitors," he told the troops.

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Beyond the verbiage of these acts, Maduro insisted on the need for "loyalty" of the army, showing that he was concerned about acts of uprising such as those that occurred last Tuesday, although involving small groups of people in uniform.

"He trusts the armed forces and their loyalty, because a handful of traitors can not tarnish the honor, the unity, the cohesion and the image of the armed forces," he said. declared. "Discipline, loyalty and subordination to the commander-in-chief of the armed forces," he demanded.

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This was the second act in which the president is presented to the military after this week's rebellion and mbadive mbad protests that were brutally repressed.

The action of Chavismo's security forces and clash groups, known as "collectives," killed five people between Tuesday and Wednesday, including two teenagers aged 14 and 16 and more than 100 wounded. There were also 200 detainees whose parents still do not know where they were detained.

After the uprising, Maduro showed signs of radicalization by calling on the armed forces not to hesitate against the "putschists". Tareck William Saab, who had previously ordered the capture of 18 civilians and soldiers for their involvement in the uprising, is accused of launching a witch hunt.

"These are outlawed citizens who will be punished for betraying the country," Saab told television's Venezolana public television channel, when she asked for warrants for arrest.

In the list of persecuted personalities, the leader of the opposition Leopoldo López, refugee in the home of the Spanish ambbadador and first vice-president of the National Assembly, Edgardo Zambrano. But also the captain of the Bolivarian National Guard, Antonio Sequea Torres, attached to the intelligence service, SEBIN.

"One option is for Maduro to step up the repression, which is already quite severe," said Michael Shifter of the Inter-American Dialogue. But he warns that the situation may escalate if some officers refuse to execute these orders, which would cause a "bigger failure".