Maduro vows to inflict the ‘maximum penalty’ on rebels
VALENCIA, Venezuela — President Nicolas Maduro vowed that a band of anti-government fighters who attacked a Venezuelan army base will get the “maximum penalty” as his administration roots out his enemies.
Troops killed two of the 20 intruders who slipped into the Paramacay base in the central city of Valencia early Sunday, apparently intent on fomenting a military uprising, Maduro said in his weekly broadcast on state television.
One of the invaders was injured, seven captured and 10 got away, the embattled leader said.
“We know where they are headed and all of our military and police force is deployed,” Maduro said. He said he would ask for “the maximum penalty for those who participated in this terrorist attack.”
The attack came as Venezuela’s controversial constitutional assembly is getting to work, signalling in its initial decrees last week that delegates will target Maduro’s foes.
The new assembly, whose powers supersede all other branches of government, voted to remove the nation’s outspoken chief prosecutor Saturday. On Sunday, Maduro announced that a new “truth commission” created by the assembly had been installed to impose justice on those fuelling the unrest that has wracked the country since early April.
The constitutional assembly is expected to meet again Tuesday, while lawmakers in the opposition-controlled National Assembly scheduled their own session for Monday. Leaders of opposition groups, which boycotted the July 30 assembly election, called for renewed protests on Monday.
More than 120 people have been reported killed in four months of unrest that has been fuelled by anger at the socialist government over food shortages, soaring inflation and high crime.