More than 100,000 Venezuelans took to the streets of Caracas on Saturday to demand the overthrow of President Nicolas Maduro, opposition leader Juan Guido, who declared himself interim president, said: "The change in Venezuela is very, very near."
"Today we announce a global alliance for humanitarian aid and freedom in Venezuela," Guido said before the protest.
Guido, who declared himself the interim president of the country on Jan. 23, also welcomed the break-up of Venezuelan high-ranking Air Force general Francisco Yaniz from Maduro earlier Saturday. "We welcome any official who stands by the constitution," he said.
Guido also announced to thousands of supporters in Caracas that a new demonstration against the Socialist President Nicolas Maduro will be held on February 12.
Guido called for "two large demonstrations", the first on Venezuela´s youth day on February 12 and the second linked to humanitarian aid without being set.
Earlier, Guido announced that humanitarian assistance would arrive in the coming days to the Colombian and Brazilian borders and to "an island in the Caribbean Sea", calling on the army to allow entry into the country.
Guido´s supporters, who carried the Venezuelan flags for hours, gathered at five points in the east of the capital and began walking toward the headquarters of the European Union in the Las Mercedes district.
The demonstrators chanted "Freedom! Freedom" while others carried pictures of Maduro.
"The (Bolivarian) Guard will fall like the Berlin Wall" and "Maduro Assassin: Venezuelans are starving," he wrote.
Opposition parliament speaker Juan Guido said the opposition wanted to send a "message to the European Union" to thank "all those countries that will recognize us soon."
Musician Wilker Paredes, 23, told AFP he was participating in the opposition demonstration to express his "opposition to this dictatorship."
Two men fight power in the oil country that was the richest country in Latin America, Maduro, which is not recognized as part of the international community, and the Guido, backed by the United States, most Latin American countries and some European countries.
The opposition chose to demonstrate on Saturday to send a message on the 20th anniversary of the Bolivarian revolution. The second of February also marks the anniversary of the inauguration of the late socialist president Hugo Chavez, who embodies Maduro´s continuation of his style.
Maduro´s opponents see his second term, which began on January 10, as illegitimate because it resulted from elections they consider fraudulent.
Saturday´s demonstration is not an arbitrary choice as it marks the 20th anniversary of the Bolivarian Revolution, named after independence hero Simon Bolivar. On this day also coincides with the anniversary of the inauguration of Socialist President Hugo Chavez from 1999 until his death in 2013. Maduro belongs to the current he founded.
For their part, Maduro supporters began rallying in the center of Caracas to commemorate the Bolivarian revolution dressed in red.
"Gringo is coming out of my country," he wrote on a banner.
"I do not want these damned Americans to confiscate the wealth of Venezuela," said Zaida, who describes herself as revolutionary to the bone.
"Let them go to hell," she wrote on another banner.
