Opposition leader Juan Guaido faced a key test of support on Wednesday after calling for the “largest march” in Venezuela’s history to try to dislodge President Nicolas Maduro, even as the military has so far resisted calls to help remove him.
Guaido on Tuesday urged the armed forces to support his effort to oust Maduro and appeared outside an air force base with dozens of National Guard members.
But there were no concrete signs of defection from the armed forces leadership, despite a years-long deep economic crisis and support for Guaido from the United States and other Western nations.
“Today we continue,” Guaido wrote in a post on Twitter early on Wednesday. “We will keep going with more strength than ever, Venezuela.”
The size of the planned street protest in Caracas will provide a test for Guaido, amid frustration among some supporters that Maduro remains in office more than three months after the opposition leader – who heads the National Assembly – invoked the constitution to assume an interim presidency, arguing that Maduro’s 2018 re-election was illegitimate.
While Guaido earned the backing of the United States and most Western countries, the armed forces have stood by Maduro, who retains the support of allies like Russia, China and Cuba.
