Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido said Monday that he is on his way home.
Guaido tweeted that he was heading back to Venezuela, though details about his exact whereabouts remained a mystery as rumours swept Caracas ahead of planned anti-government protests.
The leader of the National Assembly, who has declared himself interim president of Venezuela, said the goal of his return is to intensify internal pressure on the government of President Nicolas Maduro.
U.S. national security adviser John Bolton tweeted that threats or action by Maduro’s government against Guaido “will be met with a strong and significant response from the United States and the international community.”
In the past week, Guaido visited several Latin American countries despite a court-imposed travel ban that support his campaign against Maduro, who was re-elected last year in a vote that the opposition and dozens of foreign nations say was invalid.
In a recorded message posted on his Twitter account he said he was en route to his home and he would be with “the men and women I most admire” in a few hours.
Guaido supporters were already gathering Monday morning in Caracas. He urged them to take to the streets in another mass protest against President Nicolas Maduro. (Federico Parra/AFP/Getty Images)
In recent messages to his supporters, Guaido has appealed for huge demonstrations coinciding with his arrival as a way to pressure Maduro to resign. Workers set up a stage in a Caracas plaza where demonstrators plan to gather, and protests were planned elsewhere in the country.
The government has jailed dozens of opposition leaders and activists for seeking to overthrow Maduro through violent street demonstrations in 2014 and 2017, including Guaido’s mentor, Leopoldo Lopez, who remains under house arrest.
The United States and about 50 other countries recognize Guaido as the rightful president of Venezuela, which is in the midst of a political and humanitarian crisis.
Maduro says he is the target of a U.S.-backed coup plot and receives support from a few regional countries, such as Cuba and Bolivia, as well as Russia and China.
Venezuela’s vice-president, Delcy Rodriguez, did not directly address a question about whether Guaido faces arrest during a recent interview with Russian state-owned TV channel RT. But she left open the possibility, saying Guaido had broken the law and is “a Venezuelan who conspires with foreign governments to overthrow a constitutional government.”