Small Wars Journal

Guaidó’s Supporters and Maduro’s Forces Clash in Second Day of Venezuelan Protests

Thu, 05/02/2019 - 12:25am

Guaidó’s Supporters and Maduro’s Forces Clash in Second Day of Venezuelan Protests by Anthony Faiola, Mariana Zuñiga and Mary Beth Sheridan – Washington Post

Opposition leader Juan Guaidó brought thousands of demonstrators into the streets of the Venezuelan capital to confront tear-gas firing security forces Wednesday as the opposition sought to regroup and regain momentum in the campaign to oust President Nicolás Maduro after a failed effort to ignite a military uprising a day earlier.

 

“If the regime thought we had reached our maximum level of pressure, they were wrong,” Guaidó told several thousand supporters in the middle-class El Marques neighborhood of eastern Caracas. “Let’s keep up the pressure in the streets. The end is around the corner!”

 

Yet the chaotic events of the day before — which began with Guaidó’s calling for a peaceful insurrection by the military and ended with few takers and Maduro still in the presidential palace — left opposition supporters grappling with a sense of a pivotal moment lost. Many in the ranks remained resolute after a day of violence that left one man dead, dozens injured and more detained. But there were also strains of confusion and disappointment…

Read on.