VENEZUELAN President Nicolas Maduro raised security on Tuesday night ahead of opposition regime change protests he accused the US of backing.

Mr Maduro reacted to threats from the US State Department of an “international response” if “peaceful protests” were halted before reaching the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas.

He said the US had drawn up a plan to install opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable (Mud) coalition leader Julio Borges by blaming the government for violence whipped up by Mud militants.