Senior Venezuela official quits over crisis reforms
CARACAS: A Venezuelan retired general said Wednesday he had resigned from a top defence advisory body over the government’s contested constitutional reforms, the latest sign of division in the ruling camp.
Alexis Lopez said he had resigned a week ago as secretary of the National Defence Council, an advisory body to the government, but was making the decision public on Wednesday for the first time.
His departure adds to signs of increasing pressure on socialist President Nicolas Maduro, who has been resisting months of street protests by opponents demanding elections to remove him from office.
Analysts say Maduro relies on the support of the military high command to stay in power.
A handful of other senior public officials traditionally allied to the socialist leadership have publicly broken ranks with Maduro over the deadly crisis.
The most prominent is Attorney General Luisa Ortega, who has tried to sue the government for breaches of human rights and democracy.
Like Ortega, Lopez said he was acting in protest at Maduro’s proposal to set up an elected assembly to rewrite the constitution in response to the protests.
Maduro’s opponents say the assembly is a ploy to cling to power. They blame him for an economic crisis that has caused desperate shortages of food and medicine in the oil-rich country.
Maduro says the crisis is a USbacked conspiracy. — AFP