Guaido plans food, medicine caravan
Sets Feb. 23 date for bid to get aid across border
CARACAS, Venezuela — Juan Guaido said Tuesday that he will try to run caravans of badly needed food and medicine into Venezuela but won’t start for nearly two weeks — a timeline that threatens to deflate momentum toward unseating Nicolas Maduro.
Surrounded by cheering supporters, Guiado set Feb. 23 as the date for bringing in the badly needed U.S. assistance that has been warehoused on the Colombian border since last week, but he provided few details.
More than 2 million people have fled the country’s soaring hyperinflation and severe food and medical shortages over the last two years.
“Right now, I’m going to give this order to the armed forces: Allow in the humanitarian aid. That’s an order,” Guaido told the mass of people gathered in Caracas.
Despite the authoritative-sounding assertion, there has been little evidence that the allegiance of the security forces — the country’s key powerbroker — has swung behind Guaido, a virtually unknown lawmaker until last month, when he took the helm of the National Assembly.
Guaido provided few details on how the aid would be brought in from the Colombian border city of Cucuta, except to call for mobilizing caravans of Venezuelans — a daring and potentially dangerous maneuver that could lead to more violent confrontation with the security forces.
At least 40 people have already been killed in clashes since the 35-year-old lawmaker declared himself interim president Jan. 23. The United States and other countries have recognized him as the interim president.
Maduro backers, meanwhile, gathered at a square in the capital, cheering and waving flags.
They spoke out on state TV against intervention from what they called the “U.S. empire,” saying Maduro is Venezuela’s rightful president.
“We know that behind this supposed humanitarian aid is the intention to intervene in Venezuela,” Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said on state TV. “It’s a cheap show.”
Maduro says the humanitarian aid is part of a U.s.-led coup to topple him and won’t let it across the border. Venezuela’s military last week barricaded a key bridge between Venezuela and Colombia in an apparent attempt to keep the aid from entering.