{"id":13815,"date":"2019-03-13T11:21:56","date_gmt":"2019-03-13T03:21:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=13815"},"modified":"2019-03-13T11:25:20","modified_gmt":"2019-03-13T03:25:20","slug":"guaido-vows-to-oust-maduro-as-thousands-of-venezuelans-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=13815","title":{"rendered":"Guaido vows to oust Maduro as thousands of Venezuelans protest"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Photo courtesy Guaido Twitter<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

CARACAS, March 13 (NNN-AGENCIES) \u2013 Venezuela\u2019s opposition leader Juan Guaido vowed to take Nicolas Maduro\u2019s place in the presidential palace \u201cvery soon,\u201d as thousands of people took to the streets of Caracas to protest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need an office to work in, so very soon, and when we have the armed forces totally on our side, we\u2019ll go to find my office there in Miraflores. Very soon,\u201d Guaido told supporters, who chanted back: \u201cYes, you can!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Demonstrators banged pots and sounded car horns at the protest in a square in the east of the capital. Many waved large banners calling on Maduro to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith courage and strength I asked you to believe in yourselves, that Venezuela would emerge from the darkness, that the end of the usurpation is very close,\u201d said Guaido, who is recognized as interim president by more than 50 countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Venezuela\u2019s state prosecutor, Tarek William Saab, told reporters he would place Guaido under investigation for \u201chis alleged involvement in the sabotage of the Venezuelan electric grid.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is the first government move against the US-backed Guaido since his return to Venezuela last week after defying a travel ban to visit several allied South American leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maduro has blamed a devastating multi-day blackout plaguing Venezuela on Washington, and declared \u201cvictory\u201d in what he called an \u201celectricity war\u201d triggered by the Pentagon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also called for support from allies including Russia and China as well as the United Nations in investigating the US \u201ccyber attack\u201d he said was responsible for the blackout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guaido, 35, is seeking to capitalize on public anger over the blackout, which has piled misery on a population suffering years of economic crisis and shortages of food and medicine under Maduro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outlining the case against Guaido, Saab said the opposition leader had disseminated a series of messages that have \u201cstoked violence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt this moment he appears as one of the intellectual authors of this electrical sabotage and is practically calling for a civil war in the middle of this blackout.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US kept up the pressure on Tuesday, with its special envoy on the crisis, Elliott Abrams, saying Washington would soon impose \u201cvery significant additional sanctions\u201d on institutions doing business with Maduro\u2019s government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has already targeted a growing list of individuals and companies linked to the Maduro government, including state oil company PDVSA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maduro used the military to begin distributing food, water and other assistance in several districts on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marshalled by security forces, crowds formed impatient lines at water trucks in some areas, as they waited to fill containers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maduro had called for armed grassroots groups known as \u201ccolectivos\u201d to hit back against what he called attacks encouraged by the US against the country\u2019s electrical grid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe time has come for active resistance,\u201d he said in a speech late Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The opposition argues the colectivos have been armed by the government and act as militia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Power has been restored to some areas since the weekend, but service has been intermittent and service often drops out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Businesses and schools remained shuttered on Maduro\u2019s orders, as they have been since the blackout began. — NNN-AGENCIES
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CARACAS, March 13 (NNN-AGENCIES) \u2013 Venezuela\u2019s opposition leader Juan Guaido vowed to take Nicolas Maduro\u2019s place in the presidential palace \u201cvery soon,\u201d as thousands of people took to the streets of Caracas to protest. \u201cWe need an office to work in, so very soon, and when we have the armed forces totally on our side, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":12027,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[208,297],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13815"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}