In a televised message on Thursday, Padrino insisted that elected president Nicolas Maduro was the only “legitimate”president. “I warn the people that there is a coup underway against our democracy and our president Nicolas Maduro,” he said.

Padrino recalled a failed coup attempt by the Bush administration in 2002, saying that “those of us who lived through the coup of 2002 have it etched into our minds, we never thought we'd see that again, but we saw it yesterday.”

The White House said on Thursday that it was ready to provide more than $20 million in humanitarian assistance to Venezuela, but Trump's national security adviser John Bolton said the money should go to the “legitimate” Guaido-led government, despite the fact that Guaido was not elected by the Venezuelan people and assumed the role of interim president in what his critics say was an unconstitutional act. Bolton said the Trump administration was focused on cutting Maduro off from all sources of revenue.In a provocative move which analysts warned could lead to all-out civil war in Venezuela, Trump recognized President of the National Assembly Guaido as interim president after the the opposition politician declared himself the legitimate leader of the country.