Maduro\'s days \'are numbered\': Venezuela U.S. envoy

ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION) Carlos Vecchio, the envoy to the United States of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, told supporters in Washington, D.C.

On Wednesday "the days of Maduro in power are numbered." "Juan Guaido, interim president, is still free, strong and on the streets of Venezuela, while Maduro is off hiding...It's been, as you guys know, an intense two days in Venezuela," Vecchio said.

"And I bring a message from our President, Juan Guaido, which is the following, and I mean it from the heart: The days of Maduro in power are numbered," Vecchio added.

Venezuelans heeded opposition leader Juan Guaido's call to take to the streets on Wednesday in a bid to force President Nicolas Maduro from power, but there was little sign of any concrete effects on what increasingly looked like a political stalemate.

The standoff increased tensions between the United States and Russia, who accused each other of interference in the OPEC-member nation's affairs, however.

Guaido had called for the "largest march" in Venezuela's history and said on Twitter that "millions of Venezuelans" were in the streets in "this final phase" of his move to oust Maduro.

But by late afternoon, many of the protesters in the capital Caracas were drifting home.

Despite Guaido's calls for the military to support him, the armed forces leadership has so far remained loyal to Maduro, who has been in power since 2013.