Adds comment from US national security adviser
A military uprising is unfolding in Venezuela where opposition leader Juan Guaido is calling for the overthrow of President Nicolas Maduro.
Senior military commanders have promised to back Guaido but are yet to make good on that pledge, the White House said.
The revolt was launched around 5:30am at the gates of the La Carlota airbase in eastern Caracas. The rebel military forces appear to number at least several hundred and currently are concentrated in and around the airbase where rebel and loyal forces have clashed repeatedly throughout the day, exchanging gunfire and barrages of tear gas.
Among the senior military protagonists is army division general Orlando Santoyo Lopez, who was spotted at La Carlota airbase alongside Guaido. Army major general Jose Adelino Ornella, chief of the armed forces joint command (CEOFANB), allegedly issued a statement confirming that he is also taking part in the revolt. But shortly after the statement was issued, CEOFANB issued a separate statement claiming that he remains loyal to Maduro.
Guaido, who heads the opposition-controlled National Assembly and is recognized as Venezuela's interim president by most western nations, appeared at La Carlota with opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez early this morning. Both urged the country's armed forces and all Venezuelans to join the final push to oust Maduro.
"The definitive end of the usurpation started today," said Guaido. "The National Armed Forces, today, brave soldiers, patriots loyal to the constitution, have heeded our call."
The Opec country's oil operations have been unaffected so far.
Thousands of Venezuelan residents in the capital have been pouring onto the streets since dawn, heading toward the Altamira exchange, a strategic highway point. But the government has shut down the Caracas metro, impeding transit. Internet and cellular telephone communications are limited.
Guaido and Lopez, who said he was released from house arrest by renegade military guards, appear to have the support of dozens of heavily armed lower ranking elements of the army, national guard and Sebin political intelligence services.
A defense ministry official tells Argus that Sebin commander general Christopher Figuera also appears to be backing the attempted coup against Maduro and has ordered his Sebin forces to support Guaido and Lopez.
Separately, audio recordings of internal army communications provided to Argus suggest that up to three senior generals are supporting the revolt. Two army officials say "six or seven" garrisons have been seized by troops backing Guaido and Lopez.
Clashes between anti-government protesters and loyalist national guard troops also have been reported near the cities of Maracay and Valencia in central Venezuela, and in the states of Lara and Tachira. Anti-government protesters backed by the police have erected roadblocks in Valencia and Barcelona, with no military resistance, eyewitnesses say.
In a tweet this morning, Maduro said he has spoken to the military high commanders and affirmed their loyalty. National Constituent Assembly president Diosdado Cabello, widely viewed as Maduro's co-equal in the ruling United Socialist Party (PSUV), warned in a telephone interview on state-owned television that the government's response will be "inflexible and radical."
Cabello ordered all armed collectives and civilian militia units in Caracas to converge on Miraflores presidential palace in downtown Caracas.
Defense minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez separately issued a statement declaring that all army garrisons and naval bases nationwide remain in government hands. "Venezuela's military forces remain united in support of our legitimate President Nicolas Maduro," Padrino said.
But Padrino prior to the uprising had negotiated switching sides to support Guaido, White House national security adviser John Bolton said today. In addition to Padrino, supreme court chief Maikel Moreno and presidential guard commander Ivan Hernandez had been negotiating with the opposition, according to Bolton.
"It is very important for key figures in the regime who have been talking to the opposition to make good on their commitments to achieve transition peacefully," Bolton said. "They need to be able to act this afternoon or this evening."
Moreno today joined other senior Maduro loyalists, including attorney general Tarek William Saab, to denounce the uprising.
Foreign ministers of the Lima Group, which represents most big Latin American countries and Canada that back Guaido, is meeting via videoconference this afternoon to coordinate action.
Reaction from other parts of the world is mixed, with Washington strongly in favor of the rebellion and Moscow against.
Colombia is reinforcing security on its lengthy porous border with Venezuela. Some Venezuelan military defectors who have been housed near the border in Colombia approached the frontier this morning, but were turned back by the Colombian migration agency.
