Venezuelan security forces prevented opposition lawmakers from entering the parliament building for a session on Tuesday, a week after the top court stripped several lawmakers of their immunity amid a political crisis in the South American country.
Venezuela’s armed forces will either depose President Nicolas Maduro and lead a transition to democratic rule or face divisions that risk a civil war, the Brazilian government’s top security adviser said on Tuesday.
Venezuela reacted with outrage on Monday after the opposition openly courted US military support, with the regime denouncing what it called a “repugnant” attempt to plot an armed intervention in the crisis-torn country.
A second airplane from China carrying medical supplies including medicine arrived in Venezuela on Monday as part of a humanitarian technical cooperation agreement between President Nicolas Maduro's government and the Asian powerhouse.
A Venezuelan general called on the country's armed forces on Sunday to rise up against President Nicolas Maduro, who has relied on the backing of the military to hold on to power despite an economic collapse.
The president of the Venezuelan Parliament, Juan Guaidó, asked on Saturday his diplomatic representative in the US, Carlos Vecchio, to meet with the leaders of the Southern Command of that country to coordinate possible military cooperation in the face of the Venezuelan crisis. Meanwhile, the minister of defense of the administration of Nicolás Maduro, Vladimir Padrino López, warned on the same day a provocation of a US Coast Guard vessel that sailed 20 kilometers away from La Guaira, the main port of Venezuela.
The Trump administration on Friday expanded the scope of its Venezuela sanctions to the defense and security services sectors to try to crank up economic pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
The intelligence of Nicolás Maduro's regime detained Edgar Zambrano, vice president of the National Assembly (AN) of Venezuela, on Wednesday, after having supported the military uprising on April 30 against the authoritarian mandatory in the framework of the final phase of Operation Freedom, led by Parliament’s president, Juan Guaidó.
The US has lifted sanctions on a Venezuelan general who broke ranks from the Nicolás Maduro regime, saying it hoped it would push others to follow. Vice-President Mike Pence on Tuesday said the US would “consider sanctions relief for all those who step up”.
Five people died and 233 were arrested in protests sparked by a failed military uprising against Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro last week, Attorney General Tarek William Saab said on Monday. “All those cases are being investigated,” Mr Saab said in a television interview.