By Lokman Ilhan
CARACAS, Venezuela (AA) - Venezuela's self-proclaimed interim president Juan Guaido’s call for his supporters to take to the streets on Saturday for more protests to topple country's elected leader, Nicolas Maduro remained largely unanswered.
Guaido took to Twitter on Friday calling for a general strike to "end the usurpation of Maduro".
"Continuing [the protests] on the street is the only way to maintain the attention, pressure, the action of the international community [...] and to demonstrate to those who still support the dictator that there will be no stability as long as the usurpation continues," he said.
But Guaido's move, which he said was the beginning of the final phase of the effort to oust Maduro, has seemed to have failed to garner enough support from Venezuelan people.
Only small opponent groups in two parts of Caracas responded to the Guaido's recent call for protest.
Protests were held only in La Casona and Altamira Squares, which are set by the opposition before.
Neither Guaido nor deputies attended the demonstrations.
On Tuesday, Guaido posted a video on social media showing him standing alongside a small contingent of uniformed military personnel and armored vehicles in which he called for an uprising to end Maduro's rule.
In a show of defiance Thursday, Maduro took to the streets of Caracas in a march flanked by senior military officers and followed by 4,500 military personnel, according to the Defense Ministry.
Venezuela has been rocked by protests since Jan. 10 when President Maduro was sworn in for a second term following a vote boycotted by the opposition.
Tensions escalated when Guaido, who heads Venezuela’s National Assembly, declared himself acting president on Jan. 23, a move which was supported by the U.S. and many European and Latin American countries.
Turkey, Russia, China, Iran, Bolivia, and Mexico have thrown their weight behind Maduro.
* Writing by Zehra Nur Duz