Who In Venezuela Still Supports The Maduro Regime?

Maduro at a rally in Caracas, February 2019. Carlos Barria / Reuters

Katy Watson, BBC: Venezuela crisis: Why Chavez's followers are standing by Maduro

President Hugo Chávez may have died six years ago but he is still watching over the Venezuelan capital. Wherever you go, you spot abstract images of his eyes graffitied on buildings.

In the poor neighbourhood of 23 de enero, in the east of Caracas, his presence is even greater. It was here that the former leader organised a failed coup attempt in 1992.

It is known as a traditional Chavista stronghold. Chávez graffiti and propaganda are sprayed on to many a wall.

Marcos Lobos, 58, is one of Hugo Chávez's biggest fans. He lives in a 14-storey block of flats that is overlooked by the barracks where Chávez launched his coup and where the late leader was laid to rest after dying of cancer in 2013.

Born and brought up in 23 de enero, Mr Lobos' entire family lives in the same block. On the building's front wall, there's a stencil that reads "Chávez, the heart of my homeland".

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Update: Will Maduro’s Supporters Abandon Him? (Ivan Briscoe, Foreign Affairs)

WNU Editor: Aside from those who are over 50 and profiled in the above BBC post, senior military officers and elite forces, local militia leaders and their followers, and those who have high positions in the government and/or in Maduro's political party .... no one else is going to stand by and support this government. The breaking point will arrive when military officers below the rank of Colonel start to rebel and join the mob, and militia leaders and their armed followers decide that it would be best to flee when they lose their military backing. And as for the die-hard Chavez supporters .... they are on the wrong side of history, and they will never acknowledge it.