Venezuela crisis tips into showdown
CARACAS (AFP) — Venezuela’s political crisis looks headed for a dangerous showdown Friday, after the opposition called three more days of nationwide protests against President Nicolas Maduro, defying a ban on demonstrations ahead of a controversial weekend vote.
The war of words escalated on Thursday, the second day of a 48-hour general strike by Venezuelans angry over Maduro’s plans for a Sunday poll to elect a new body to rewrite the constitution.
“The regime declared we can’t demonstrate... We will respond with the TAKING OF VENEZUELA” through a protest on Friday, the opposition coalition, the Democratic Unity Roundtable, said on its Twitter account.
It later upped the ante, calling for protests on Saturday and Sunday, as well.
“The whole country must tell the world this constituent assembly has no legitimacy,” opposition lawmaker Freddy Guevara said at a press conference, urging Venezuelans to “deepen the conflict” to force Maduro to abandon his plan.
Maduro countered by urging the opposition to “abandon the road to insurrection.”
He called for immediate dialogue but signaled he was not backing down. Any talks, he said, should happen “before the election and installation of the Constituent Assembly” tasked with rewriting the constitution.
Earlier, he issued a decree warning anybody taking part in protests that “could disturb or affect” Sunday’s vote risked five to 10 years in prison.
Four months of violent protests have already left 108 people dead, according to prosecutors. Five of them — including two minors — died in protests during the two-day strike.
Fears of open civil conflict have prompted an exodus of thousands of Venezuelans into neighboring Colombia.
Maduro unbowed
International concern has mounted, with the United States, European Union, United Nations and most heavyweight Latin American nations urging Maduro to back down from his plan.
Some 70 percent of Venezuelans oppose plans for the constituent assembly, according to polling firm Datanalisis.
Washington has responded to Maduro’s intransigence by imposing economic sanctions on 13 current and former Venezuelan officials, freezing their U.S. assets and forbid- ding American entities from doing business with them.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin warned that the 545 members to be elected to Maduro’s constituent assembly could also face punishment.
Maduro branded the sanctions “illegal, insolent and unprecedented.”
The U.S. on Thursday ordered relatives of embassy staff in Caracas to leave the country, and authorized employees to leave on a voluntary basis, citing “social unrest, violent crime, and pervasive food and medicine shortages.”
Venezuela’s opposition, which controls the National Assembly, has urged civil disobedience against what it terms Maduro’s dictatorship. It is pushing on with its own strategy of trying to force Maduro from power through early elections.