President Nicolas Maduro has urged Venezuelans to confront the “crazed minority” supporting US-backed Juan Guaido, by staging massive “anti-imperialist” rallies on the same day that the opposition plans to take to the streets.

“Nobody will be able to disturb the peace of Venezuela,” Maduro promised, in his first public comments after the opposition leader Guaido returned to Venezuela on Monday and immediately called on his supporters keep up the heat against the government.

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After failing to undermine the loyalty of the Venezuelan army, the self-proclaimed ‘interim president’ targeted one of Maduro’s key support bases in the public sector and is now in talks with trade unions about staging massive strikes by state workers.

Accusing Guaido of trying to destabilize the country, Maduro called on Venezuelans to hold massive “anti-imperialist” rallies.

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“Next March 9 is the four-year anniversary of the infamous Obama decree, that Venezuela is a threat,” Maduro said, during a ceremony commemorating the sixth anniversary of the death of his predecessor, Hugo Chavez. “That day will be decreed as the day of anti-imperialism and we go to the streets this Saturday, March 9.”

In 2015, then-President Barack Obama officially designated Venezuela as an “extraordinary threat to the national security” of the US, with the Trump administration now taking more concrete steps to bring about a regime change in Venezuela.

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