Venezuelans grow weary of struggle against Maduro

When Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó urged people to take to the streets once more on Saturday to defy the government of Nicolás Maduro, his supporters responded with sympathy but also with weariness and fear.

After a week in which they had seen at least four protesters killed and hundreds wounded in brutal clashes with Mr Maduro’s security forces, many questioned whether it was wise to go back on the streets.

“When are you going to march until? Enough!,” tweeted Nangel Medina, a graphic designer from hard-hit Zulia state in the west of the country. “People have already protested and the world knows that we’re in the majority but we’re fighting bullets with whistles and placards.”

“Stop offering us up as cannon fodder and making martyrs out of us in vain,” added María Hernández, another of Mr Guaidó’s 2m twitter followers. “We need concrete actions.”

Mr Guaidó may still have the support of most Venezuelans in his bid to unseat Mr Maduro but after four months of effort, people are tiring.

Saturday’s marches were supposed to win over the military. Mr Guaidó urged his followers to march to military installations and hand over copies of a letter in which he reminded the armed forces of their constitutional duties and urged them to support a “peaceful transition”.

But few people heeded the call and even Mr Guaidó, who had been expected to lead one of the marches, did not turn up.

Instead, weary Venezuelans took advantage of the lull to stock up on supplies.

“These haven’t been easy days and things are still tense,” said 62-year-old Magaly Uzcátegui as she shopped for fruit and vegetables at a market in the El Paraíso district of the capital.

“It was brutal this week. The military police fired a lot of shots. In the tower block where I live loads of windows were broken and the colectivos [motorbike gangs that support the government] turned up. We’re just surviving.”

“We don’t know what’s going to happen next,” added 54-year-old Rafael Rojas as he queued to buy tomatoes. “It’s out of our hands.”

The lull in the protests followed an extraordinary week in which Mr Guaidó ramped up his campaign, appearing outside an air base in Caracas flanked by armed men in uniform and calling for insurrection. Thousands of supporters flocked to his side prompting three days of clashes.

The military largely stood firm behind Mr Maduro, who said he had defeated a coup attempt orchestrated by the US. On Friday, his chief prosecutor Tarek William Saab said he had issued 18 arrest warrants for “civilian and military conspirators”.

Until now, the government has refrained from arresting Mr Guaidó. Washington has said it will act swiftly and firmly if it does and insists that “all options remain on the table”, including military intervention.

The US and around 50 other countries have recognised the 35-year-old as Venezuela’s interim president. They say Mr Maduro is an illegitimate leader clinging to power on the basis of bogus elections.

On Saturday, Mr Maduro made yet another visit to a military base, congratulating cadets on their preparedness to fight an “anti-imperialist war”.

“A handful of traitors who sell themselves out to US interests won’t stain the military honour of the fatherland,” he tweeted during the trip in the northwestern state of Cojedes.

He was flanked by his defence minister Vladimir Padrino López who, according to the US, has been talking to the opposition and had agreed to join last week’s rebellion before backing down at the last minute.
Meanwhile, Washington kept up its relentless social media campaign against the Maduro government, with US secretary of state Mike Pompeo tweeting a video in which he once again pledged support for the Venezuelan people and said “the time for transition is now”.

Mr Guaidó has acknowledged that he does not yet command enough support within the military to force regime change while, for his part, Mr Maduro has accepted that his administration needs to “rectify mistakes”.

To that end, he authorised thousands of popular “assemblies” over the weekend to discuss what needs to be changed. However, it seemed they were open to government supporters only.

The Venezuelan crisis has become a global concern with the Russians, Cubans and Chinese backing Mr Maduro and the US and most Latin American nations throwing their weight behind Mr Guaidó.

President Donald Trump spoke to Russian leader Vladimir Putin about it on Friday and Mr Pompeo is due to raise it when he meets Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov in Finland this week.

Despite last week’s setback, in Caracas, Ms Uzcátegui said she was still confident he would soon be forced out.

“If he has a little bit of conscience and dignity left he’ll step down,” she said.