Venezuela Crisis: Guaido Calls for Further Protests to Avoid Arrest upon Return

By Staff, Agencies

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, who is on a tour of Latin American nations to drum up support for his regime change efforts, said he will call for new rounds of protests against President Nicolas Maduro upon his return.

Speaking in the Argentinian capital Buenos Aires on Friday, Guaido insisted that he would soon return home.

"Today we also announce that we will persist in our return home. And we will arrive there in a few days. And, we ask all the Venezuelan people that they join us in the streets, we will be calling for new protests and mobilizations," he said.

The 35-year-old, who calls himself the "interim president" of Venezuela, faces possible arrest upon return after he slipped out of the country in violation of a Supreme Court order to stay within the country's borders.

Guaido left Venezuela last week to join "aid" convoys in Colombia and then met with US Vice President Mike Pence as well as other regional leaders to step up pressure on Maduro to resign.

Maduro’s government has closed borders with Brazil and Colombia in order to block what he says is an attempt by the US to proceed with its regime change plans.

He has repeatedly denounced the so-called humanitarian assistance as a US plot to disguise a military intervention in his country and promised that Guaido will eventually “face justice” for supporting a US-backed coup.

Seeking to empower Guaido, Washington has also targeted Caracas with sanctions, including state-owned oil company PDVSA.

On Friday, the US Treasury Department imposed fresh sanctions targeting six Venezuelan government officials allegedly affiliated with Maduro, accusing them of blocking aid from reaching the Latin American country.