Mutiny ‘put down’ as unrest grows in Venezuela
VENEZUELA’S GOVERNMENT said it has put down a mutiny by a national guard unit in a poor neighbourhood a few miles from the presidential palace.
The uprising triggered protests in the same neighbourhood that were dispersed with tear gas.
The armed forces said in a statement that they had captured all those involved in what they described as “treasonous” acts motivated by “obscure interests tied to the far right”.
They said a small group of guardsmen took captive a captain in charge of a police station in western Caracas and then moved across the capital in two military trucks to the poor neighbourhood of Petare, where they stole a cache of weapons from another outpost.
They met resistance and were caught hours later at a national guard outpost two miles from the Miraflores presidential palace.
The armed forces said all the weapons had been recovered and the mutinous troops captured.
A few hours earlier, a group of heavily armed national guardsmen published a series of videos on social media saying they will not recognise President Nicolas Maduro’s government, which has come under increasing domestic and international pressure over a newly launched second term that the opposition-controlled congress and many nations consider illegitimate.
In one of the videos, a man identifying himself as 3rd Sgt Figueroa, addressing the “people of Venezuela”, urges his compatriots to take to the streets to show support for their rebellion.
“You asked to take to the streets to defend the constitution, well here we are,” he said.
“You wanted us to light the fuse, so we did. We need your support,” he added.
Pressure has been mounting on Mr Maduro to cede power after he began a second, six-year term this month.
The US and dozens of other foreign governments consider it illegitimate, in part because he banned several leading opponents from running against him.