Venezuelans call for humanitarian aid as political crisis deepens

Anti-government protesters take to the streets, calling for Nicolas Maduro to step down and aid to be allowed in.

Doctors, businessmen and other workers protested in major cities across Venezuela on Wednesday, calling for humanitarian aid to be allowed into the country and for President Nicolas Maduro to step down.

Supporters of opposition leader Juan Guaido, who last week swore himself in as the interim president, waved flags and banners. Guaido’s proclamation came after the opposition-controlled National Assembly declared Maduro’s second term "illegitimate".

Several smaller protests were held throughout the capital Caracas including in the neighbourhood of Altamira in the eastern part of the city.

"We are tired of so much misery, of not getting medicine, of spending the day looking for food from one place to another," 47-year-old Ana Bello told Al Jazeera, waving a flag. Bello, an office secretary, used her lunch break to join the protests.

In La Candelaria, in the centre of the city, protesters marched to the JM de los Rios Hospital, a paediatric centre. Some nurses and doctors left the health centre and joined the protest.

"We ask that they let humanitarian aid in," nurse Maria Alvarez told local media.

"Even though even our directors say it is not necessary, we know what it is like to see patients die due to lack of supplies," she was quoted as saying.

Millions have left Venezuela since 2015, fleeing hyperinflation, poverty and food and medicine shortages.

Protester Cesar Gonzalez, 55, said he wants his children and grandchildren to return to the country.

"We're becoming a country of old people. We have no future," he told Al Jazeera.

Guaido, who has the support of the United States, and several countries in the region, joined the protests outside the University Hospital of Venezuela's Central University where students chanted, "Guaido is here, Guaido is here and hope comes with him."

"We will recover the health system of Venezuela," he told the crowd, repeating his call for the military and police forces to support him.

Courtesy : Aljazeera