Maduro was leaving Venezuela but Russia convinced him to reverse - Pompeo

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was prepared to leave the country on Tuesday (April 30) morning in the face of a call for an uprising by opposition leader Juan Guaido, but reversed his plan after Russia intervened, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a US television interview on Tuesday (April 30).

"It's our understanding that he was ready to go, he'd made a decision that we've been urging him to make for quite some time, and then he was diverted from that action by the Russians. We hope he'll reconsider and get back on that plane," Pompeo told Fox News.

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido appeared alongside armed, uniformed men on Tuesday in his strongest call yet to the military to abandon Maduro, a day before planned mass protests aimed at toppling the socialist leader.