CARACAS: Opposition supporters in Venezuela were set to take to the streets Monday after leader Juan Guaido called for mass protests against President Nicolas Maduro — as the self-declared interim president prepared to return after a week touring Latin American allies.
Guaido’s reappearance in Venezuela would pose an immediate challenge to the embattled Maduro, who will have to decide whether to arrest him for defying a travel ban — thereby provoking strong international condemnation — or allow him to enter unmolested, which would undermine his authority, analyst say.
“I’m announcing my return to the country. I am calling on the Venezuelan people to mobilize all over the country tomorrow at 11:00 am (1500 GMT),” Guaido wrote Sunday on Twitter.
Later, in a video with his wife shared on his social networks, he said if Maduro’s government “tries to kidnap us … it will be one of the last mistakes it makes.”
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