Rival rallies set up tense standoff in Venezuela
CARACAS, Feb 2 ( AFP) - Tens of thousands of protesters were set to pour onto the streets of Caracas on Saturday to back opposition leader Juan Guaido's calls for early elections as international pressure increased on President Nicolas Maduro to step down.
Major European countries have set a Sunday deadline for Maduro to call snap presidential elections. Failing that, they will join the US in recognising National Assembly speaker Guaido as Venezuela's interim president.
Guaido's call for a massive show of popular support coincides with a huge pro-Maduro demonstration.
The ruling Socialist party celebrates the 20th anniversary of the rise to power of Hugo Chavez, Maduro's deceased predecessor, on Saturday.
The “clear goal” of the march was “to accompany the ultimatum given by members of the EU,” Guaido said ahead of the march, which will begin outside the EU offices in eastern Caracas.
The rival marches will take place in different districts of a tense Venezuelan capital. Maduro's supporters will concentrate in Plaza Bolivar in the heart of Caracas, 10km from the EU offices.
Clashes last week around the country left some 40 people dead, according to the United Nations.
Chavez, the army officer whose oil-fueled spending raised millions of Venezuelans out of poverty, assumed office as Venezuela's president February 2, 1999 at the head of a socialist movement. His hand-picked successor, Maduro, has presided over the oilrich country's economic collapse and is widely denounced as a dictator for ruthlessly cracking down on dissent amid chronic shortages of food and medicines.
Guaido, 35, is trying to force the socialist leader from power so he can set up a transitional government and hold new presidential elections.
The US and a dozen Latin American countries rapidly recognized Guaido after he declared himself acting president in a January 23 speech, posing a direct challenge to Maduro's authority.
European Parliament lawmakers recognized Guaido on Thursday as the acting head of state.
And four major European powers -Britain, France, Germany and Spain -have said they will do so if Maduro fails to call presidential elections by midnight on Sunday.