Guaido vows to replace Maduro ‘very soon’

Venezuela’s opposition leader Juan Guaido vowed to take Nicolas Maduro’s place in the presidential palace “very soon”, as thousands of people protested in Caracas.

“We need an office to work in, so very soon, and when we have the armed forces totally on our side, we’ll go to find my office there in Miraflores. Very soon,” Mr Guaido told supporters, who chanted back: “Yes, you can.”

Demonstrators banged on pots and pans and sounded car horns in a square in the east of the capital. Many waved banners urging Mr Maduro to go.

“The situation is very difficult, we are hoping that this government will change,” said one of the demonstrators, Miguel Gonzalez. “We’ve had enough of this chaos.”

“With courage and strength I asked you to believe in yourselves, that Venezuela would emerge from the darkness, that the end of the usurpation is very close,” said Mr Guaido, who is recognised as interim president by more than 50 countries.

But Venezuela’s state prosecutor, Tarek William Saab, said he would investigate Mr Guaido’s “alleged involvement in the sabotage of the Venezuelan electric grid”.

It is the first government move against the US-backed Mr Guaido since his return to Venezuela last week after defying a travel ban to visit several allied South American leaders.

Mr Maduro blamed Washington for the power cut in Venezuela, and declared victory in what he called an “electricity war” triggered by the Pentagon. He also called for support from allies, including Russia and China, as well as the UN in investigating the US “cyber attack” he said was responsible for the power cut.

While Mr Maduro accused Washington, critics blamed the government for failing to maintain the power grid.

Mr Guaido, 35, is seeking to capitalise on public anger over the power cut, which has piled misery on a population suffering after years of economic crisis and shortages of food and medicine under Mr Maduro.

The US kept up the pressure on Tuesday, with its special envoy on the crisis, Elliott Abrams, saying Washington would soon impose “very significant additional sanctions” on institutions doing business with Mr Maduro’s government.

Prompted by Mr Guaido’s urging, the opposition-dominated National Assembly declared a “state of alarm” on Monday to pave the way for the delivery of aid, 250 tonnes of which has been stuck at Venezuela’s borders with Colombia and Brazil.