Venezuelans prepared for a major march on Wednesday after dozens of violent protests overnight, as the opposition sought to force President Nicolas Maduro from office amid global criticism of the socialist leader.
Angry citizens protested late on Tuesday in at least 60 working-class neighborhoods around the country, burning trash and clashing with troops in an echo of violent street demonstrations two years ago, a local rights group said.
A 16-year-old was shot to death at a protest in the poor west end of Caracas, according to Venezuela’s Observatory of Social Conflict. There was no official confirmation of the death, and the Information Ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
The opposition has been energized by a new leader of congress, Juan Guaido, and by the harsh international reception of Maduro’s second term, widely condemned as illegitimate.
But any change in government will rest on a shift in allegiance within the armed forces. They have stood by Maduro through two waves of street protests and a steady dismantling of democratic institutions.
Guaido, 35, has called for the military to disavow Maduro and promised amnesty for those that help bring about a return to democracy. He has said he would be willing to replace Maduro as interim president, with the support of the military, to call free elections.
Addressing members of the military on Monday, he said: “We’re not asking you to stage a coup d’etat, we’re not asking you to shoot. We’re asking you not to shoot at us.”
Guaido would provide legal protection to soldiers and officials who defected if he became president, he told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday, although “there would have to be justice for those that have done bad things.”
The march on Wednesday, an annual event that commemorates the 61st anniversary of the fall of a military dictatorship, is expected to draw hundreds of thousands. The ruling Socialist Party is holding a rival march, and officials have threatened Guaido with jail.
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence issued a message of support to Venezuelans opposing the government on Tuesday, promising support for Guaido and branding Maduro a “dictator with no legitimate claim to power.”
“Yankee, go home,” Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez told a news conference in response. She denounced “the perverse plans of Venezuela’s extreme right to endanger stability and peace.”
The pro-government Supreme Court, which annulled the powers of the congress in 2017, ruled on Monday not to recognize Guaido as its head and asked the state prosecutor’s office to determine whether he had committed a crime.
Maduro, who was inaugurated on Jan. 10 following a 2018 election widely viewed as a sham, has presided over Venezuela’s spiral into its worst-ever economic crisis, with inflation forecast to reach 10 million percent this year.
His administration has jailed dozens of opposition activists and leaders for seeking to overthrow him through street demonstrations in 2014 and 2017. The 2017 protests left 125 people dead in clashes with police.
