Nine killed in Venezuela as Maduro ‘power grab’ goes ahead
Parliamentary candidate among dead as president holds poll that critics claim will usher in dictatorship
By Mariana Zuniga in Caracas
and Harriet Alexander in New York
A PARLIAMENTARY candidate and a 13-year-old boy were among nine people killed in Venezuela yesterday as President Nicolas Maduro defied international pressure and internal strife to hold a controversial election.
Mr Maduro summoned the nation to the polls yesterday to vote in 545 members of a new constituent assembly, which his supporters claim will end months of violence, but his detractors say ushers in a dictatorship.
On the eve of the vote, Mr Maduro appeared on state television and did not attempt to downplay the power grab he was orchestrating. He said the vote was “the election of a power that’s above and beyond every other.” He added: “It’s the super power!”
The assembly will have powers to rewrite the country’s 1999 constitution. Mr Maduro said he wanted the assembly to strip opposition legislators of their constitutional immunity from prosecution, and carry out “a total transformation” of the office of the chief prosecutor – a former loyalist who has become fiercely critical of the government. “The Right wing already has its prison cell waiting,” said Mr Maduro. “All the criminals will go to prison for the crimes they’ve committed.”
Donald Trump, the US President, last week imposed sanctions on 13 senior members of Mr Maduro’s regime, and his administration has threatened economic retaliation for going ahead with the vote. That could include halting sales of Venezuela’s oil to the US, which could bankrupt the country. Mr Maduro, a former bus driver, voted before
‘[It’s] the election of a power that’s above and beyond every other. It’s the super power
dawn yesterday, casting his ballot in a polling station a few hundred feet from a church where, earlier this month, a 61-year-old nurse was shot dead by men accused of being pro-government paramilitaries.
More than 100 people have died since April 1, as protests against Mr Maduro’s government have paralysed many parts of the country – aggravating shortages of essential goods and highlighting the humanitarian crisis.
In the early hours of yesterday, Jose Felix Pineda, a 39-year-old lawyer running for election to the assembly, was murdered by gunmen who stormed into his home in the southeastern town of Ciudad Bolivar. Ricardo Campos, leader of the youth wing of the opposition Accion Democratica, was killed outside his home in Cumaná.
Shootings at protests yesterday killed a 13-year-old and a 17-year-old in the western state of Tachira. A soldier was also shot dead there. A 43-year-old man was killed in the western city of Barquisimeto and three others died during protests in the Andean city of Merida
Henrique Capriles, an opposition leader, said: “The government wants to sell the constituent assembly as a solution to the problems. But it’s only aggravating them.”
The government tried to encourage participation by offering social benefits, such as subsidised food, to the poor, and threatening state workers’ jobs if they did not vote.
In a public school in La Candelaria, a district of western Caracas, Jesus Placios, 67, told The Daily Telegraph he was voting “because this is my duty as a citizen”. He added: “I really hope this new assembly will solve our problems.”
Beatriz Castillo, 73, exited the polling booth holding hands with her husband, Ramon. She said: “I’m afraid that if I don’t vote they could take my pension away.”
Nikki Haley, US ambassador to the UN, said in a message on Twitter: “Maduro’s sham election is another step toward dictatorship.
“We won’t accept an illegit govt. The Venezuelan PPL & democracy will prevail.”