A high-ranking Venezuelan general has called on the armed forces to rebel against President Nicolas Maduro.
Key points:
* General Francisco Yanez is the first active Venezuelan general to defect
* Anti-government protesters continue to demand the resignation of Mr Maduro
* Mr Maduro held a rally celebrating the 20th anniversary of Hugo Chavez's inauguration
The defection of General Francisco Yanez came as tens of thousands of opposition supporters, many sporting clothes in the yellow, blue and red colours of the Venezuelan flag, turned out at rallies nationwide to protest against Mr Maduro and show support for opposition leader Juan Guaido.
"People of Venezuela, 90 per cent of the armed forces of Venezuela are not with the dictator, they are with the people of Venezuela," the air force general said in a video circulating on Twitter.
"Given the happenings of the last few hours, already the transition to democracy is imminent."
On its Twitter account, the air force's high command accused the general of treason.
General Yanez is the first active Venezuelan general to recognise Mr Guaido since he proclaimed himself president on January 23.
Venezuela's chief military attache to the United States also said he was defecting last week.
While small rebellions against Mr Maduro have broken out in Venezuela's armed forces in recent months, there has been no large-scale military uprising against him.
Photo: Mr Guaido's opposition has declared Mr Maduro a usurper after last year's elections. (AP: Fernando Llano)
'It's time they leave'
Mr Guaido swore himself in as interim president in a direct challenge to Mr Maduro's rule, but still has no control over state institutions or any functions of day-to-day governance.
"We are going to send a very clear message in all the municipalities of Venezuela and in each city of the world, we are going to give a demonstration of strength, in a pacific and organised manner," Mr Guaido tweeted on Saturday (local time).
Mr Maduro's adversaries say he has run roughshod over democratic institutions, including the opposition-run congress, and destroyed the once-buoyant economy through a corruption-riddled exchange control system and arbitrary nationalisations.
The US has argued Mr Maduro stole his second term and imposed potentially crippling sanctions this week that are likely to further weaken the OPEC nation's struggling oil industry.
Mireanna Fernandez, a 20-year-old student at a protest in the eastern city of Ciudad Guayana, said before Mr Guaido's January 23 proclamation she wanted to leave Venezuela, but now she had hope that Mr Maduro's government would end.
"I have no quality of life, I can't go out onto the streets, my university is falling apart, they've closed classrooms, there are no teachers," she said.
"It's time they leave."
Photo: Mr Maduro's administration could also crack down on the Opposition, or try to jail Mr Guaido. (AP: Ariana Cubillos)
Trump 'thinks we are his slaves'
Mr Maduro also held a rally to commemorate the 20th anniversary of late socialist leader Hugo Chavez's first inauguration as president in 1999, proposing early parliamentary elections as he seeks to shore up his rule.
Mr Maduro said the powerful government-controlled Constituent Assembly would debate calling elections this year for the National Assembly parliament, which is opposition-controlled.
Mr Guaido has called for a new, fair presidential election after the disputed vote won by Mr Maduro last year.
"You want elections? You want early elections? We are going to have parliamentary elections," Mr Maduro told the pro-government rally in Caracas.
Photo: Supporters of the "chavismo" movement gathered in Caracas for the government rally on Saturday morning. (AP: Ariana Cubillos)
"For us Venezuelans, there is only one president — President Nicolas Maduro," said government supporter Gregory Carrasquel, 35.
"The other is someone who is being led to carry out a coup.
"[US President Donald] Trump is imposing measures because he is the dictator of the world and thinks we are his slaves."
Venezuela is suffering from hyperinflation, produce shortages and a mass migration of citizens to neighbouring Latin American countries — a situation likely to be worsened in the short term by the new sanctions.
2012 - Insight: When the Exxon way stops working Image London (Reuters) - When Exxon boss Rex Tillerson walked into a meeting with the President of Ghana on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, he thought he was set to strike a deal with an important new oil producing nation. P - Instead Tillerson - who had flown into town aboard an executive jet bigger than those used by many heads of state - was rebuffed by an irritated John Atta Mills, who had expected to be wooed rather than given a tough contract to rubber-stamp. P - That scene in a New York hotel room in 2009 sums up a corporate attitude which dozens of industry executives, bankers, analysts and government officials say is damaging Exxon's balance sheet. In a world where oil rich nations now call the shots the U.S. giant's imperious approach is increasingly a liability, they say. P - Exxon has struggled to access new oil and gas reserves in recent years. In March the company slashed growth plans and by some calculations slipped behind PetroChina as the world's biggest listed producer of oil. Last week it revealed a fall in output and profits that knocked its share price. P - A bossy approach worked well as long as oil-rich nations signed purely financial deals, and stuck to them. But when oil prices began to ramp up around a decade ago, a wave of resource nationalism blew through countries like Russia, Venezuela and Libya and changed the game. [...] Halfway around the world in Venezuela, Hugo Chavez in 2007 insisted state oil group PDVSA should have a majority stake in oil and gas licenses. Exxon and U.S. peer ConocoPhillips disagreed, and left the country rather than concede, while Shell, BP, Chevron, Norway's Statoil and others accepted a reduction in their stakes. https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=75349227
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