Big anti-Maduro drive ramps up

– Venezuela’s angry opposition is pushing for a boycott of an upcoming vote that it dismisses as a ploy by President Nicolas Maduro to cling to power.

Ahead of next Sunday’s election for a 500-plus member assembly to rewrite the constitution and give the president more power, the opposition also plans a strike tomorrow and Thursday and a big protest march on Friday.

The opposition is doggedly driving to unseat Maduro, whom it blames for an acute economic crisis. Four months of almost daily street protests have left 103 people dead. “Let them lock us all up. The fight must move forward,” said Freddy Guevara, the deputy speaker of the opposition-controlled congress. –

Caracas