Venezuela opposition readies fresh strike

VENEZUELA’S opposition has called a fresh 48-hour general strike against embattled President Nicolás Maduro’s plans to have the constitution rewritten giving him broader powers.

The walk-out comes as violent and sometimes deadly protests continue amid a political and economic crisis that has led to shortages of basic goods and soaring inflation.

“We are calling out the entire people, all groups in society, for a 48-hour strike” on Wednesday and Thursday, lawmaker Simon Calzadilla said.

Calzadilla said that the strike would be capped on Friday with a march demanding Maduro officially scrap his Constituent Assembly vote scheduled for July 30.

Earlier on Saturday, police fired tear gas to break up an opposition march on the Supreme Court to press demands that elected socialist Maduro leave office.

That rally was also meant as a show of support for a slate of 33 magistrates – a shadow supreme court – whose names were put forward on Friday by the opposition to replace Venezuela’s current high court, which is closely allied with Maduro and frequently rules in his favour.

Emboldened by a nationwide strike on Thursday that paralysed parts of the capital Caracas and otherVenezuelan cities, opposition leaders held a mock swearing-in ceremony Friday for the shadow court’s new “judges”.

Many of the actual court’s justices were hastily appointed shortly before Maduro’s ruling party lost its majority in congress.

Their swearing in was condemned by the government as “incitement to subversion” and an act of “treason,” and officials threatened to throw the dissidents into prison. One of the judges was arrested by intelligence services, the National Assembly said on Twitter.

In Saturday’s march, hundreds of people took to a key Caracas motorway to head downtown toward the court building. But troops riding motorcycles fired tear gas to disperse them.

Wuilly Arteaga, a violinist who has gained celebrity for playing at many marches, was injured and taken to a clinic. The 23-year-old was seen with blood pouring from cuts on the left side of his face. He said later he had been struck with buckshot.