Protesters call for release of Maduro

THOUSANDS of backers of Venezuela’s former leader Nicolas Maduro, who was ousted in a deadly US military operation, marched in Caracas this week to demand his freedom.

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A SUPPORTER of ousted President Nicolas Maduro takes part in a vigil in Caracas. I AFP

(AFP)

“Venezuela needs Nicolas,” chanted the crowd, a month to the day since he was spectacularly toppled and whisked away to stand trial on drug charges in New York.

Interim president Delcy Rodriguez has been walking a tightrope since then - trying to hold on to support from Washington but also from Maduro acolytes in her government and the Venezuelan people.

Several demonstrators, many of them public sector workers, held photos of Maduro and of his wife, Cilia Flores, who was also seized in the US raid.

The march, called by the government, stretched for several hundred metres and was accompanied by trucks blaring music.

“These people are not American,” said Maduro’ son, Nicolas “Nicolasito” Maduro Guerra, a deputy in Venezuela's National Assembly.

“We have achieved a profound anti-imperialist consciousness.”