Venezuelan opposition readies for fresh 48-hour general strike

Protesters want Maduro scrap his Constituent Assembly vote scheduled for July 30

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

The walkout 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” Wednesday and Thursday, lawmaker Simon Calzadilla said.

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

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

Show of support

That rally was also meant as a show of support for a slate of 33 magistrates — a so-called shadow supreme court — whose names were put forward 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 other Venezuelan 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. “Everyone has given their backing to the new Supreme Court,” tweeted Freddy Guevara, a leader of the oppositionled congress.

“We support the new judges because they will restore independence to the Supreme Court,” said 43-year-old demonstrator Luis Torrealba, marching with his wife and teenage son.

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.