Venezuelan security forces fire tear gas to disperse opposition supporters protesting against power blackouts
Opposition supporters demonstrate against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, on March 30, 2019. Venezuelan security forces fired tear gas on Saturday to disperse demonstrators who turned out in Caracas to protest massive power outages that have kept much of the country in darkness since early March.
The Chinese ambassador to Venezuela said the country was "an integral strategic partner and our friend", adding that "we are convinced that the Venezuelan people is capable of keeping the peace." Opposition leader Guaido was quick to claim credit for the planned aid distribution, saying on Twitter that announcements by the Red Cross and church leaders amounted to a victory for "our struggle."A Russian military deployment to Venezuela that has prompted warnings by the United States was meant largely to fix a broken missile system, a US official said Friday.
Amoroso said Guaido, the head of the opposition-controlled National Assembly who invoked the constitution to assume an interim presidency in January, had inconsistencies in his personal financial disclosures and a spending record that did not match his level of income.
Two Russian air force planes landed at the country's main airport on the weekend carrying a Russian defence official and nearly 100 soldiers, according to media reports.President Nicolas Maduro's government blamed the outage on an "attack" targeting the country's main hydroelectric plant Guri, which supplies power to 80 percent of Venezuelans.
But many in the capital were already bracing for the worst, fearing a repeat of the chaos that swept across the country earlier this month when residents had to survive without water service and lost touch with loved ones abroad for several days. The flights carried officials who arrived to "exchange consultations," wrote Russian government-owned news agency Sputnik, which quoted an unnamed source at the Russian embassy.
Reporter Javier Mayorca wrote on Twitter on Saturday that the first plane carried Vasily Tonkoshkurov, chief of staff of the ground forces, adding the second was a cargo plane carrying 35 tonnes of material. "We have dismantled a plan organised personally by the diabolical puppet to kill me," Maduro told thousands of supporters in Caracas, referring to Guaido, who is recognised as interim president by more than 50 countries.
"[President Nicolas] Maduro and his enablers have distorted the original purpose of the bank ... as part of a desperate attempt to hold onto power," US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement announcing the action.Maduro's government arrested a top aide of opposition leader Guaido. The agents had raided the Caracas residences of Marrero and Vergara before dawn on Thursday, Guaido said in a tweet.The United Nations' high commissioner for human rights said on Wednesday that recent US sanctions that are aimed at toppling Maduro threaten to deepen the nation's crisis.
Recent power outages across Venezuela show that "something terrible is going on down there" and "we need to put an end" to the current dire situation, Trump said at a joint news conference with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro at the White House. US officials say they are focused on putting diplomatic and financial pressure on Maduro's government, which says Trump is preparing for military intervention in a country struggling with hyperinflation and shortages of basic goods. Trump on Tuesday urged Venezuela's military to desert their president, calling Maduro a "Cuban puppet," in a joint appeal with Brazil.
"We are taking these steps in order to preserve the assets of the Venezuelans here in this country," Vecchio said from one of the buildings, the office of Venezuela's military attache to Washington, after removing a portrait of Maduro from the wall and replacing it with one of Guaido.Guaido embarked on a new stage of his campaign to oust Maduro on Saturday.
Since returning to Venezuela from a Latin American tour on March 4, Guaido has led anti-government activities in the capital of Caracas and announced plans to take his message to other regions. American Airlines has stopped flights to Venezuela because of safety concerns after the pilots' union told its members to refuse to work the flights.
The latest revocations –– which include visas for 107 former diplomats and their families –– brings the total to more than 600 since late 2018, spokesman Robert Palladino said.The United States has withdrawn all remaining diplomatic personnel from its embassy in Caracas as the crisis in Venezuela deepens, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said.
Pompeo tweeted earlier this week that the diplomats would be withdrawn because they had become a "constraint" on US policy. By Wednesday, electricity was back in Caracas and other regions. But swaths of western Venezuela remained without power, including the city of Maracaibo where more than 500 shops reported having been looted, according to a retailers' association.
But power supplies remained patchy in the sweltering western state of Zulia, where anger after nearly a week without power overflowed into street violence.Guaido vowed Tuesday to take Maduro's place in the presidential palace "very soon," as thousands of people took to the streets of Caracas to protest.
Guaido, who is trying to oust Maduro and hold elections, blames corruption and incompetence for nearly a week of nationwide blackouts that deprived most of the already struggling population not just of electricity, but also water and communications. Parliament approved the decree proposed by its leader and self-proclaimed acting president Guaido. Electricity is returning to parts of the capital, but the rest of the country is without power.
The Trump administration has taken several steps in recent weeks to ratchet up pressure on Maduro and bolster Guaido, recognised by the United States and several other states as the interim president.Venezuelans converged on a polluted river in Caracas to fill water bottles and held scattered protests in several cities as growing chaos took hold in a country whose people have had little power, water and communications for days.
Guaido, who declared himself acting president in January, told reporters he has convened an emergency session of the National Assembly "to take immediate actions with respect to the necessary humanitarian aid."Venezuelans woke up to a fourth day of an unprecedented nationwide blackout on Sunday, leaving residents concerned about the impacts of the lack of electricity on the South American country's health, communications and transport systems.
The blackouts heightened tension between the bitterly divided factions, which accused each other of being responsible for the collapse of the power grid. “Not a president, not anything,” said Maduro, who accused Guaido and his US allies of sabotaging Venezuela’s Guri Dam, one of the world’s largest hydroelectric stations and the cornerstone of Venezuela’s electrical grid.
At the same time, supporters of Maduro gathered in a separate district of the Venezuelan capital in a rival demonstration that illustrated the gulf between two factions struggling for control of a nation paralysed by an economic and political crisis.
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