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Venezuelan opposition aims to escalate violence in the country, says Cuban leader

Earlier on Tuesday, Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido published a video on Twitter, urging the Venezuelan military to take to the streets in order to "end the usurpation" in the country

HAVANA, April 30. /TASS/. By urging the military to move against the legitimate government, the Venezuelan opposition aims to escalate violence and terror in the republic, Cuban President Miguel Diaz Canel stated on Twitter on Tuesday.

"We reject this movement towards a coup d’·tat, the aim of which is to fill the country with violence. The traitors positioning themselves in the vanguard of these subversive activities have used the military and armed police on the road to the city to cause clashes and terror," Diaz Canel wrote.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez has blasted the attempted coup as an act of aggression against peace in the region. "We strongly condemn the attempted coup d’·tat in Venezuela. Cuba expresses full support and solidarity with the legitimate president of this brother country Nicolas Maduro and his government, as well as the Bolivarians and the Chavistas. We have to stop the aggression against peace in our America," he wrote on Twitter.

Earlier on Tuesday, Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido published a video on Twitter, in which he urged the Venezuelan military to take to the streets in order to "end the usurpation" in the country. According to Guaido, the video was taken at the Francisco de Miranda Airbase in Caracas. A group of military officers and head of the Popular Will party Leopoldo Lopez also appear in the video.

Juan Guaido, whose appointment to that position had been cancelled by the country’s Supreme Court, declared himself interim president at a rally in the country’s capital, Caracas, on January 23. On the same day, the United States recognized him as an interim president, and the countries of the Lima Group (excluding Mexico) and the Organization of American States followed suit. Venezuela's incumbent President Nicolas Maduro blasted the move as an attempted coup and announced cutting diplomatic ties with the United States.

Most European Union member states recognized Guaido as Venezuela’s interim president. Russia, Belarus, Bolivia, Iran, China, Cuba, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Syria and Turkey voiced support for Maduro.