Border closures aim to block aid
US and 50 other countries.
But while he’s managed to bring hope to Venezuelans crushed by years of recession, food shortages and hyperinflation, he’s so far been unable to win over the military, which has shown little sign of abandoning Maduro.
In declaring his support for Guaido, retired Major General Hugo Carvajal said Venezuela’s military was in as ramshackle a state as the nation as a whole.
Reading prepared remarks in a video on social media, Carvajal, who spent a decade running Chavez’s military intelligence agency before stepping down in 2012, urged his former comrades to redeem themselves and abandon their support for Maduro.
‘‘You carry on your shoulders the weight of an army that gave liberty to people in more than five countries,’’ he tries to bring international attention to the country’s hardships.
In recent days, residents of the remote town of Santa Elena de Uairen have reported seeing convoys of military vehicles and troops amassing along Venezuela’s southern border with Brazil. Residents of the town, including members of a militant indigenous tribe, are vowing to somehow cross into Brazil to fetch the aid, although it’s not clear how they will be able to surmount the military blockade.
‘‘There’s a lot of uncertainty because people don’t know what’s going to happen,’’ said opposition lawmaker Americo de Grazia, who is on the ground in the state.
There were also troop deployments at the opposite end of the country, where workers were busily assembling stages Major General Hugo Carvajal
for Branson’s ‘‘Venezuela Aid Live’’ fundraiser and a rival concert being put on by the government Friday and Saturday on the Venezuelan side of the border.
Near the Tienditas International Bridge, a worker for the Venezuelan state-owned electricity company said that he was worried that the government’s ‘‘Hands Off Venezuela’’ concert would not be ready on time.
‘‘We lack the resources,’’ the man complained, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to publicly criticise the project. About a dozen organisers sat idly in white plastic chairs chatting and listening to Venezuelan folk music on small speakers.
A much-larger stage being built on the outskirts of the Colombian border city of Cucuta is expected to host artists including Spain’s Alejandro Sanz, Argentina’s Diego Torres and Colombia’s Carlos Vives.
Luis Vicente Leon, a Caracas-based pollster, downplayed expectations for any immediate shakeup as a result of the weekend’s confrontation.
But he said the Trump administration’s surprisingly strong commitment to forcing out Maduro, even if it means inflicting more economic pain on Venezuelans through amped up financial sanctions, means the status quo can’t hold.
‘‘In 20 years of Chavismo the chances of a change in government taking place have never been so high,’’ he told a group of business leaders in Caracas, referring to Chavez’s socialist revolution. –AP A Japanese spacecraft has touched down on a distant asteroid on a mission to collect material that could provide clues to the origin of the solar system. Workers at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency control centre applauded yesterday as a signal sent from space indicated the Hayabusa2 spacecraft had touched down. During the touchdown, Hayabusa2 is programmed to extend a pipe and shoot a pinball-like object into the asteroid to blow up material from beneath the surface. If that succeeds, the craft would then collect samples to eventually be sent back to Earth. Three such touchdowns are planned. The asteroid, named Ryugu after an undersea palace in a Japanese folktale, is about
900 metres in diameter and 280 million kilometres from Earth. Two sons of drug lord Joaquin ‘‘El Chapo’’ Guzman, pictured, have been indicted on drug conspiracy charges. The Justice Department says Joaquin Guzman Lopez and Ovidio Guzman Lopez were charged in a case unsealed in Washington last week. Prosecutors allege the two brothers conspired to distribute cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana in the US for more than a decade. They are both believed to be living in Mexico and remain fugitives. Their father was convicted earlier this month on drug and conspiracy charges after a three-month trial in New York. The offences could put him behind bars for the rest of his life. His lawyers raised concerns of potential juror misconduct after a juror told Vice News that several members of the panel looked at media coverage of the case.