Maduro foe plans caravans for U.S. aid to Venezuela

CARACAS, Venezuela — Opposition leader 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 entrenched President Nicolas Maduro.

Surrounded by thousands of 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.

The 11-day wait was sure to be a disappointment for Venezuelans desperate for the supplies. More than 2 million people have fled the country’s soaring hyperinflation and severe food and medical shortages over the last two years. The minimum wage, which most Venezuelans earn, amounts to less than $6 a month, and it is common to see people scouring garbage for food in the streets of Caracas.

Despite the authoritativesounding 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.

At least 40 people have already been killed in clashes since the 35-year-old lawmaker declared himself interim president Jan. 23.

Diego Moya-Ocampos, a Venezuela analyst with the London-based consulting firm IHS Global Insight, said Guaido has gained broad support beyond the middle classes and deep into Venezuela’s slums, once a stronghold of the ruling socialist party.

But that hasn’t translated into support from the military and security forces, who Moya-Ocampos said continue to distrust the opposition.

“The military has had more than one opportunity to withdraw support for Maduro,” Moya-Ocampos said. “It has consistently continued to back him.”