Maduro thanks military for defeating coup
CARACAS. - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has thanked the country’s military, saying it has defeated a coup led by the US administration and opposition leader Juan Guaido.
Speaking outside the presidential palace in the capital Caracas on Saturday, Maduro praised Venezuela’s armed forces for staying put and referred to Guaido as “a clown and a puppet” of the United States.
“They invited the armed forces to carry out a military coup and their reply was clear they have defeated the coup plotters,” he said.
Maduro also said “cyber attacks” are behind Venezuela’s crippling power cuts, insisting that the blackout is part of a plan to topple him with “the support and assistance of the US.”
He said the massive blackout that has affected the country since Thursday was caused by “high-level technology that only the United States government has.”
Maduro said almost 70 percent of power had been restored, but a new attack at one of the generators that was working perfectly “disturbed and undid everything we had achieved.”
He spoke as the Venezuelan capital became the scene of widespread protests by pro-government and opposition groups, with reports of clashes between some of Guaido’s supporters and riot police.
Addressing a rally, the 35-year-old opposition leader announced that he would embark on a tour of the country and call on all his supporters to attend a mass protest in Caracas “very soon.”
“Once we’ve finished the tour, the organization in every state, we’ll announce the date when all together we’ll come to Caracas,” Guaido said. “We are going to come, all of Venezuela to Caracas, because we need all of them united.”
Accusing Maduro’s government of “inefficiency” over the power cut, Guiado has so far taken advantage of the crisis and called on his supporters to take to the streets against the president. - Press TV