Showdown set as new assembly prepares for power
CARACAS, VENEZUELA » Venezuela is nearing a showdown, with President Nicolas Maduro vowing to install a new constituent assembly that will trump every other branch of government and opposition leaders calling for a mass protest to ensure delegates know their arrival is unwelcome.
The first meeting of the 545 delegates is expected to convene today at the legislative palace in Caracas — only yards from the room where the opposition- controlled National Assembly holds its sessions.
The legislative palace has been witness to bloody clashes in recent weeks and today’s installation of the all- powerful assembly, which Maduro has vowed to use to strip opposition lawmakers of their constitutional immunity, sets the stage for an in- tensified power struggle. Opposition lawmakers in congress have vowed they will only be removed by force.
“The only way they’ll get us out of here is by killing us,” declared Freddy Guevara, the National Assembly’s first vice president. “They will never have the seat that the people of Venezuela gave us.”
Sunday’s election of the constituent assembly has come under mounting scrutiny after the CEO of an international voting technology company said Wednesday that “without any doubt” the voter turnout numbers had been tampered with — accusations that Maduro and the National Electoral Council have dismissed. A growing list of foreign nations has refused to recognize the assembly and many within Venezuela fear its installation will open a dark chapter in the nation’s history.
“There has been a gradual erosion of democratic practice and this is a significant line that has been crossed,” said Michael Shifter, president of the Washington- based think tank InterAmerican Dialogue. “To attach the term democracy to Venezuela with this new constituent assembly is on very weak ground.”
The U. S. State Department called the assembly illegitimate Thursday, saying the election was rigged to further entrench “the Maduro dictatorship.”
“The United States will not recognize the National Constituent Assembly,” spokeswoman Heath Nauert said.
On the eve of the assembly’s installation, the Spanish Embassy in Caracas was attacked with gasoline bombs. Prosecutors said two individuals on a motorcycle launched the devices, which started a fire but caused no reported injuries.