Venezuelan opposition protests for snap elections

Opposition activists pour to the streets to back Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido&#039;s calls for early elections, in Caracas on February 2, 2019.

(Image credit: Federico Parra/Getty Images)

last updated 2 February 2019

Venezuelan opposition leader and U.S.-backed interim president Juan Guaidó called for large-scale rallies of his supporters across the country Saturday in continued protest of embattled President Nicolas Maduro.

Guaidó is pushing Maduro to call a snap election, and several European nations have indicated they will follow Washington in recognizing Guaidó as president of Venezuela if Maduro does not comply by Sunday. "We'll see you in the streets tomorrow, Venezuela," Guaidó said in a video message Friday. "We're doing well. We're doing very well."

Venezuelan Air Force General Francisco Yanez threw his weight behind Guaidó's cause Saturday as demonstrators assembled, saying in a video posted to Twitter that most of the military opposes Maduro. "People of Venezuela, 90 percent of the armed forces of Venezuela are not with the dictator; they are with the people of Venezuela," Yanez said. "Given the happenings of the last few hours, already the transition to democracy is imminent."

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.

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