Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro dismisses ‘coup’ amid escalating crisis
Caracas — Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and key military figures made a show of unity in a television broadcast on Thursday, seeking to reject claims by the US and the opposition that the armed forces high command was prepared to turn on him. Flanked by defence minister Vladimir Padrino and military operations chief Remigio Ceballos, Maduro said in a dawn national address posted first to social media that the armed forces were "united, cohesive and subordinate to their constitutional mandate", just two days after opposition leader Juan Guaido again urged the military to join him to oust Maduro. Venezuelans heeded a call from Guaido to take to the streets on Wednesday in a bid to force Maduro from power, but there was little concrete sign of change in a crisis that increasingly looks like a political stalemate. Guaido, the head of the opposition-run National Assembly, is recognised as Venezuela's legitimate head of state by the US , the European Union and others, while Maduro...
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