Around Caracas, small clandestine groups passed out copies of an amnesty against corruption or abuse for any military member who defects to the new opposition now claiming to lead Venezuela. Some in uniform tolerated it, maybe even more. Others were shown burning their copies.

Meantime at a military fort east of the capital, the embattled president, Nicolas Maduro, oversaw tanks firing round after round into a dusty valley. The show of force was not subtle: the military – which some experts say he has essentially bribed to remain loyal to him – is still on his side.

“They want our armed forces to throw a coup,” Maduro told the troops, broadcast on state television. “Well, we’re going to prepare our weapons so no one dares to think of touching our sacred land.”

“Traitors never,” he said. “Loyal always.”

Loyalty Battle

Whoever ultimately wins over the loyalty of the military will probably also win leadership of the country.

Last week, Juan Guaido, the 35-year-old president of the National Assembly, declared Maduro’s rule and recent re-election illegitimate and declared himself Venezuela’s leader.

With improbable swiftness, that declaration was almost immediately recognized by the U.S. and other nations, many in Latin America, agonized over Venezuela’s plunge from prosperity to poverty and lawlessness under Maduro.

Guaido told The Washington Post Sunday that he was in behind-the-scenes talks with “government officials, civilian and military men.”

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the UN on Saturday that now “is time for every other nation to pick a side.”

“Either you stand with the forces of freedom, or you’re in league with Maduro and his mayhem,” he said.

Military Bought Off?

Critics say that Maduro has essentially bought off the military, allowing money laundering, fraud, illegal mining and other crimes. And he is counting on them now that his rule is in question.

Guaido’s supporters are intent on winning them over, as he himself quietly reaches out to possible future statesman who would run the government and finances of any new government. Maduro’s top military attache in Washington, Col. Jose Luis Silva, declared loyalty Saturday to Guaido.

The talks for an essential shadow government are in the earliest phases but several people have been mentioned.

Most prominent is Ricardo Hausmann, a government minister in the 1990s who runs the Venezuela Project at Harvard. He is said to be helping Guaido informally and has already drafted a plan to repair the nation, from the economy to energy.

Carlos Vecchio, a political coordinator from Guaido’s Popular Will party, met on Saturday with Elliot Abrams, the U.S.’s new liasion to Venezuela, and has been named business representative to America.

“These appointments won’t help him govern internally, since this can only happen when he’s in power, but if it helps him organize support international and send a message of power,” said Luis Vicente Leon, president of the Caracas-based pollster Datanalisis.

Offering Amnesty

Critics caution it’s too early to predict any sort of success – Guaido holds no palpable power over Maduro or the nation – but his supporters nonetheless worked to convince individual soldiers to defect.

Congressman Ismael Leon and other Guaido supporters walked up to the gates of the army command building in the Caracas’ neighborhood of San Bernardino and slipped the amnesty through the bars. The group asked the silent group of guards on the other side to “not raise their weapons against those peacefully protesting.”

“They didn’t want to receive us,” Leon said. “But with their eyes they told us they knew why we were doing what we were doing. They understood us.”

A group of four national guards in the neighborhood of La Florida said two people had come up to them in the morning and respectfully described the law to them. The response was less friendly outside of commands in El Paraiso and Petare, Caracas’ biggest slum, where reports on local media show guards burning the copies that were handed to them. DM