Venezuela’s Maduro urges military to ‘capture traitors’

“If a traitor emerges, capture him immediately, it’s an order: capture him immediately!” Maduro told army personnel at a military rally called the “March of Loyalty” in the northern state of Carabobo on Tuesday.

The president called on military personnel to be vigilant against enemy threats and to “activate” the “weapons systems... to make any adventure impossible for imperialism.”

The United States has several times threatened to take military action to oust Maduro’s government since the deepening of a political and economic crisis in the country last year.

A small number of renegade soldiers led by opposition figure Juan Guaido staged an attempted coup d’état against Maduro’s government last month. But the bid quickly failed, and many of the putschists have taken shelter at foreign embassies in Caracas.
Others have been arrested or gone into hiding.

Guaido has continued to urge military personnel to defect.

The crisis in Venezuela intensified after he unilaterally declared himself “interim president” in January.

Meanwhile, high-level negotiations have begun between the Venezuelan government and opposition in Norway, which is brokering the talks to help end the months-long crisis.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Thursday that he was “very much supportive” of the talks in Oslo.

And Guaido confirmed on Thursday that he had sent a delegation to the negotiations but denied that any direct talks had taken place between the government and opposition representatives.