Venezuela is on tenterhooks as it braces for pro- and anti-government protests Thursday -- the eve of President Nicolas Maduro's swearing-in for a third term rejected by the opposition and much of the international community as illegitimate.

With exiled opposition figure Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia vowing to return home to claim the presidency he insists he won in elections last July, his supporters have been called to turn out in millions ahead of Friday's investiture ceremony.

But backers of Maduro's ruling "Chavista" movement have vowed to take to the streets as well, and thousands of heavily-armed police and soldiers have been deployed in Caracas in advance.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello has said anti-Maduro protesters, whom he described as "fascists" and "terrorists," "will regret" turning out, vowing that "we will go on the counter-attack."

A brutal crackdown on the protests that met Maduro's election victory claim five months ago saw 28 people killed, some 200 injured and more than 2,400 arrested.

"What will happen is unpredictable," Venezuelan Mailin........

© International Business Times