President Nicholas Maduro has foiled an attempt to remove him from office
When an uprising succeeds it is called a revolution but when it fails it is described as a rebellion. This was what happened yesterday when a group of Venezuelan national guardsmen rebelled against the regime of President Maduro. They briefly took control of a military command post in Caracas. However, the uprising failed.
Maduro and his henchmen
Hear Diosdado Cabello, Mr Maduro's right-hand man, as he described the brave soldiers : “They were neutralised, surrendered and captured in record time.”
Before dawn, about 20 guardsmen had stolen weapons from a national guard base before heading for the working-class district of Cotiza, less than two miles from the presidential palace. They went on to take control of the command post. Sadly, they were overpowered by loyalist troops within hours. Around 27 soldiers were said to have been seized.
Encouragingly, the brave soldiers who are now referred to as rebels were not entirely deserted by the people. Their arrest prompted violent street protests. In a sign of popular resentment of the regime by some of the poorest citizens of Venezuela, residents of Cotiza poured on to the streets and erected barricades to show support for the guardsmen.
![A demonstrator throws back a canister of tear gas while clashing with the Venezuelan National Guards](https://www.thetimes.co.uk/imageserver/image/methode%2Ftimes%2Fprod%2Fweb%2Fbin%2F4e1ade82-1da1-11e9-9fac-490c95b1919e.jpg?crop=2943%2C1962%2C0%2C0&resize=498)
The president remains unrepentant as he pursues a failed ideology. Now, a national protest is planned for tomorrow against the leftist Maduro regime, which has brought Venezuela to ruin. Inflation is above one million per cent, the public health system has collapsed, and the minimum wage is worth just £5 a month.
The president of the opposition-controlled Venezuelan national assembly, Juan Guaidó has said that he was ready to declare himself the country’s lawful president. He is backed by most governments in the region as well as the United States.
Maduro has totally forgotten that those who make a peaceful change impossible make a violent change inevitable.
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