(CNN) Venezuela's embattled President Nicolas Maduro has claimed his troops have defeated a "coup" attempt amid calls by opposition leader Juan Guaido for protesters to return to the streets Wednesday.

In a live televised address Tuesday night, his first since the apparent uprising began, Maduro rejected claims he has lost control of the military and accused "imperialist" forces of seeking "to attack and overthrow a legitimate government to enslave Venezuela."

"We have been facing various forms of coup d'etat, due to the obsessive efforts of the Venezuelan right, the Colombian oligarchy and the US empire," Maduro explained, adding that the military air base Guaido had spoken from earlier in the morning was never under the control of the opposition.

The speech followed a dawn address from Guaido Tuesday, in which the young opposition leader, standing alongside a group of soldiers in the capital Caracas, announced an uprising to seize power from Maduro. It marked the most serious challenge to Maduro's leadership so far and unleashed a day of street protests and skirmishes.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro gives an address transmitted on radio and television from Caracas, Venezuela.

In a follow-up video post, recorded from an unknown location and posted Tuesday evening, Guaido called for renewed action "over the expanse and length of Venezuela."

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