Guaidó shows strength in the streets to stop Maduro's counteroffensive | Internationale

What was also seen in Caracas was an important demonstration of Chavez's base unit, which listened to Maduro after 20 years of possession by Hugo Chávez. The Venezuelan leader has criticized the main organs of the international community, has positioned himself as president and has attempted to split the opposition by proposing a "national meeting", a dialogue that the opposition rejects without reserve, believing that it is a time-saving strategy.

The Speaker of the National Assembly, by a majority of the opposition, is seeking precisely to break this cohesion which gives the government still more oxygen. The call to the armed forces is constant and Guaidó is again voiced about this a few hours after a general of the air force, Francisco Esteban Yánez Rodríguez, recognized his status as legitimate president. Despite the symbolic burden, the general does not have troops under his responsibility. Although this support is still a minority, Guaidó, leader of the party of the popular will, relies on the conscience of the base. The decisive test will be in the coming days, when they will have to decide whether to approve humanitarian aid, which will arrive in the city of Cucuta (Colombia), Brazil and a Caribbean island. "You, soldier, will have in your hands the decision to allow these entries," he said. "This is not only to be on the side of the Constitution, soldier of the motherland, no, it is their role in the reconstruction of Venezuela to exercise its sovereignty."

"We do not expect statements from individual authorities, but statements en bloc," Guaidó said. , speaking of the platform installed in the shopping and business district of Las Mercedes, at the confluence of five steps. Since launching his challenge in Maduro, one of his central messages has focused on the urgency of incorporating the disappointed Chavista, or at least the most pragmatic sectors, into a national reconstruction project. "I tell the discontented and angry Chavistes that Maduro does not protect anyone, but the Constitution, yes, does." We did not try to twist our hands, but to squeeze them. "

" Maduro was totally alone, "said Guaidó, who refers to the same constitution approved two decades ago, during Chávez's first term, to defend the legitimacy of his oath of office. three phases: the "cessation of the usurpation" of Maduro, the formation of a transitional government and free elections within a maximum period of 12 months

Its strategy is essentially based on two axes. On the one hand, the support of Venezuelan society and the workings of the state, on the other, the complicity of the so-called international community, with the administration of Donald Trump, who This pressure outside the Venezuelan borders continues, and a few hours before the rally Mike Pence and John Bolton intensified their threats against Maduro, Colombian President Iván Duque said. that there were only a few hours left to the dictatorship. This stance fueled the fire and encouraged the wing that opted for the most belligerent solution to the crisis in Venezuela and, at the same time, led Maduro to harden his rhetoric from the outside enemy. The Chabad leader attacked "Yankee interventionism" and indirectly warned that he did not need anyone's support. "We are not a country of beggars."

Meanwhile, the European Union and Mexico are increasingly active in the crisis and are trying to converge, still distanced by the positions they defend. The EU has proposed, on the eve of the demonstrations, to give Maduro 90 days to call elections. Mexican diplomacy hopes to meet with the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, Federica Mogherini, to see how she wants to describe the mediation leading up to the elections. At the same time, Mexico has maintained active contacts with Guaidó to see if it would accept the EU's position.

The government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, whom many see as a key element in the coming weeks and whose neutrality calls into question the sympathy that arouses Maduro, is confident that Mogherini will participate in the 7th meeting of Montevideo that Mexico has promoted with the government of Uruguay. So far, the sources consulted point to the meeting held on Friday with several representatives of nearly twenty European embbadies in the Mexican capital. The meeting, scheduled to discuss the migration projects that Mexico is planning to develop, finally focused on the crisis Venezuela is going through.

López Obrador claims that, unlike the negotiations that took place in Santo Domingo last year and ended so abruptly, there are two factors that can cause both parties to sit down for discuss. First, the new: the neutral role that Mexico defends and is ready to play in this process. The other, chronic: the desperate crisis in Venezuela, which worsens over the days.