Venezuelan coup attempt stalls as military digs in

Opposition leader Guaidó is blocked by security forces from marching on presidential palace

John Paul Rathbone in New York and Gideon Long in Bogotá

The dramatic call to arms by two of Venezuela’s most important opposition figures for the military to oust the regime of Nicolás Maduro started at dawn outside the Carlota military air base in Caracas. By mid-afternoon, the putsch appeared to have failed.

One of the leaders, Leopoldo López, took refuge in the Spanish embassy with his family. The other, Juan Guaidó, was blocked by security forces from marching on the presidential palace. Nor were there concrete signs of defections by the army’s top leadership.