With an air base as a backdrop, the Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó called on Tuesday for mass antigovernment protests backed by the military, issuing a direct challenge to the government that the military has so far protected. “Today, brave soldiers, brave patriots, brave men attached to the Constitution have followed our call,” Mr. Guaidó said in a video posted on social media, speaking from what he said was Generalisimo Francisco de Miranda Air Base, a military airport in central Caracas known as La Carlota. He has called before for the military to rise up against the government of President Nicolás Maduro, but doing so flanked by men in uniform, at a base in the heart of the capital, was a new step. Mr. Guaidó claimed that “the definitive end of the usurpation starts today,” but it was not clear how many civilians or soldiers would heed him.

Source: New York Times April 30, 2019 11:25 UTC