Daniella Cheslow, January 30, 2019<\/p>\n
Widespread protests were expected Wednesday in Venezuela, where opposition leader Juan Guaid\u00f3 urged supporters to take to the streets at noon and demand that sitting President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro step down. Hours before the protest, President Trump called Guaid\u00f3 and reinforced his support.<\/p>\n
The demonstrations would mark a week since the 35-year-old opposition leader declared himself interim president of Venezuela. Guaid\u00f3 was recently elected president of the country’s National Assembly, and he says the Venezuelan constitution grants him authority to to lead the country because Maduro was re-elected last year through fraud.<\/p>\n
The U.S. has recognized Guaid\u00f3 as Venezuela’s president and backed his push to take office. Trump spoke to the opposition leader and congratulated him “on his historic assumption of the presidency,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Wednesday. Guaido thanked Trump <\/a>on Twitter for the phone call.<\/p>\n On Monday, the U.S. also imposed sanctions on Venezuela’s state-run oil company, and a day later, the State Department granted<\/a> Guaid\u00f3 authority to take control of Venezuelan government assets held by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York or any other U.S.-insured banks.<\/p>\n The U.S. is Venezuela’s biggest customer for oil, and production is expected to drop<\/a> if Maduro remains in power.<\/p>\n Maduro has refused to step down, and his government has barred Guaid\u00f3 from traveling and frozen his bank accounts. Venezuela’s chief prosecutor, Tarek William Saab, announced a criminal probe<\/a> Tuesday into Guaid\u00f3’s anti-government activities. Maduro painted Guaid\u00f3’s rebellion as a U.S. attempt to steal Venezuela’s oil resources, and warned that, “we won’t allow a Vietnam in Latin America.”<\/p>\n World powers have lined up on either side of the Venezuelan crisis. Some two dozen countries, including Latin American nations, Australia <\/a>and Israel<\/a>, have backed Guaid\u00f3. A number of Western European countries have said they will side with him if Maduro does not call new elections.<\/p>\n Russia and China continue to support Maduro’s regime with loans and political backup at the U.N. Security Council. Private military contractors linked to Russia’s government are also rumored to be in Venezuela protecting Maduro, Reuters reported<\/a>, citing sources close to the contractors.<\/p>\n Ahead of Wednesday’s demonstrations, Guaid\u00f3 called on Venezuelans<\/a> to step outside for a two-hour, nonviolent protest beginning at noon. He urged them write their grievances on white placards and post photos online with a hashtag that translates to “You also have reasons.” He also urged the military to “cross over to our side, the side of the constitution.”<\/p>\n So far, the vast majority of Venezuela’s armed forces have not answered Guaid\u00f3’s call. On Wednesday, Maduro presided over a military march and rallied rows of troops in green fatigues, invoking the liberator Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar and former President Hugo Ch\u00e1vez and referring to the U.S. support of Guaid\u00f3 as imperialism.<\/p>\n “The sun is rising,” Maduro said. “January is gone. And rebellious February, anti-imperialist February is coming.”<\/p>\n Maduro has offered to talk with the opposition, The Wall Street Journal reported<\/a>. Previous talks have not yielded change.<\/p>\n