Maduro starts work on rewrite of constitution amid violence

CARACAS, Venezuela — Thousands of protesters were met with plumes of tear gas in Venezuela’s capital Wednesday, just miles from where President Nicolas Maduro delivered a decree kicking off a process to rewrite the troubled nation’s constitution.

A combative Maduro told supporters outside the National Electoral Council that the constitutional assembly was needed to instill peace against a violent opposition.

“I see congress shaking in its boots before a constitutional convention,” he said, referring to the oppositioncontrolled legislature.

A short distance away, national guardsmen launched tear gas at demonstrators who tried marching toward the National Assembly.

“The repression has started,” said Miguel Pizarro, an opposition congressman. “That’s how those who want to maintain a dictatorship with violence act.”

The latest push by Maduro to settle an increasingly deadly and contentious political crisis comes as the Trump administration warns it might impose more sanctions on Venezuelan officials and members of the U.S. Congress are pushing the administration to act more forcefully to rein in Maduro.

Five people were killed overnight. The deaths bring to at least 35 the number of people who have died in the unrest over the past month. Hundreds more have been injured.

Driving the latest outrage is the decree by Maduro to begin the process of rewriting Venezuela’s constitution, which was pushed through in 1999 by late President Hugo Chavez.