Venezuela's Oppn urges armed forces to withdraw support for Prez Maduro

Venezuela's opposition leaders are calling on the country's armed forces to abandon their support of President Nicols Maduro and stop repressing demonstrators who have come out in force to dispute the leader's claim he prevailed in last Sunday's election.

The armed forces are traditionally the arbiter of political disputes in Venezuela and have been key to Maduro's grip on power ever since he took over the so-called Bolivarian revolution in 2013 from his mentor, the late Hugo Chvez.

So far, they've shown no signs of ditching Maduro even in the face of credible evidence presented by the opposition that it trounced the self-proclaimed socialist at the polls by a more than 2-to-1 margin.

In a message posted Monday on social media, Edmundo Gonzlez who the U.S. and a half dozen countries have recognized as the victor and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado called on rank and file members of the security forces to rethink their loyalty.

We appeal to the conscience of the military an