We'll begin with the situation in Venezuela. In Caracas, a rally of President Nicolás Maduro's supporters is being held. According to the Venezuelan media, several thousand people came to the rally. But a kilometer away from the rally of supporters of the legitimate president, another rally began. It's being held by members of the opposition.
Our special correspondent, Anton Stepanenko, is keeping track of the events. He's now live with our studio from Caracas.
- Hello, Anton. I hope you can hear me well. How are the rallies there going? What are the slogans there? Please, share the latest details with us.
- Hello, Maria.
Supporters of the legitimate president, Nicolás Maduro, started their rally first. It didn't look like a political action. There was a lot of music and songs, stages were set up where competition in rallying cries to support the legitimate president was held. Actually, it was officially called a youth march. In my opinion, the police lazily stood by since the participants didn't make them interfere. A bit later, supporters of Juan Guaido started their own rally. They blocked one of the main streets in Caracas. And people gathered at a place where, well I think it was a 3-story high stage that was set up. Deputies and opposition politicians hyped up first. They spoke mainly about the necessity of the humanitarian aid and the alleged legitimacy of their claims for the power. Remarkably, the participants of the rallies even looked different from each other. The people supporting Maduro looked poorer. But we didn't hear a word about humanitarian aid or that they needed anything from them.
The people supporting the opposition were clearly richer. In the conversations and our interviews with them, they were constantly talking about how poorly they live and that the country simply wouldn't survive without the Western humanitarian aid. The main character, Juan Guaido, appeared in a pretty spectacular way. He was driven on a motorcycle to the stage. The crowd made way for him, and accompanied by a storm of applause, he drove to the stage. He didn't start speaking immediately. He seems to have waited so that the people were ready to listen to him. He spoke for a long time.
In my opinion, his speech had two very interesting points. First, he declared that as the allegedly legitimate president and the commander-in-chief, he gives his first order to the military and the police to not hinder the delivery of the humanitarian aid. That was his first point. The second point of his speech was relatively concrete. Prior to that, there were general statements about how they all live. So, his second point was that starting on this Saturday, the opposition will begin to give away humanitarian aid to those in need.
The more Guaido spoke, the more there was work for emergency crews because it was afternoon, it was hot and sunny, and people were just fainting. As if on a conveyor belt, they transported them to ambulances.
As to Juan Guaido's political ambitions, the Venezuelan ambassador to Russia, Rafael Tortosa, has interesting information about the background and the real essence of that politician.
Rafael Tortosa, Venezuelan Ambassador to Russia: "If I'm not mistaken, he was 21 in 2007, and he went to Serbia where they trained a group of young guys from Venezuela to start an intervention and unrest. It took place when Hugo Chávez was president. And they started all those preparations. Two years later, he was invited to study at one of the universities in Washington. Afterward, he joined a right-wing party. Which we consider, in our country, to be a fascist party".
- Maria, as of now, they have prevented the demonstrations of the opposition and Maduro's supporters from meeting. Nevertheless, both the police and the Venezuelan National Guard are on standby. Maria, that's what I know.
- Anton, thank you very much for your detailed report. Let me remind you that this was our special correspondent in Venezuela, Anton Stepanenko, with the details of the recent events in Caracas. I think that we'll return to this subject in our future programs many times.
