The Latest: Anti-Maduro protesters gather in Venezuela
Posted Mar 4, 2019 8:44 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
CARACAS, Venezuela — The Latest on Venezuela’s political crisis (all times local):
11:40 a.m.
Several hundred supporters of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido have gathered in a Caracas plaza, heeding a call from the self-declared interim president to turn out for his expected return to Venezuela.
More demonstrators on Monday were walking toward the plaza in the Las Mercedes district of the Venezuelan capital. Some carried national flags.
The crowd initially appeared smaller than those of previous opposition rallies, which have drawn tens of thousands of people.
Guaido says the goal of his return is to intensify pressure on President Nicolas Maduro to resign so that a transitional government can take over and prepare Venezuela for free and fair elections. Maduro says he is the target of a U.S.-backed plot to overthrow him.
Guaido on Monday morning tweeted that he was on his way home, though he did not reveal his exact whereabouts.
___
11 a.m.
Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido says he’s his way home.
Guaido tweeted Monday that he’s heading back to Venezuela, though details about his exact whereabouts remained a mystery ahead of planned anti-government protests.
The leader of the National Assembly has declared himself interim president of Venezuela. He says the goal of his return is to intensify internal pressure on the government of President Nicolas Maduro. In the last week, Guaido visited several Latin American countries that support his campaign against Maduro, who was re-elected last year in a vote that the opposition and dozens of foreign nations say was invalid.
The Associated Press
