Venezuelan opposition readies another strike
Mexican ex-gov to be tried for organized crime
CARACAS, July 23, (Agencies): Venezuela’s opposition on Saturday called a fresh 48-hour general strike against embattled President Nicolas Maduro’s plans to have the constitution rewritten giving him broader powers.
“We are calling out the entire (Venezuelan) people, all groups in society, for a 48hour strike” Wednesday and Thursday lawmaker Simon Calzadilla said.
With anti-government marchers still clearing streets Saturday, Calzadilla said that the strike would be capped on Friday with a march demanding that Maduro officially scrap his planned Constituent Assembly vote. It is scheduled for July 30.
Earlier 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, as months of sometimes deadly anti-government demonstrations showed no signs of abating.
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 favor.
Emboldened by a nationwide strike on Thursday that paralyzed 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.
The shadow court has strong support from the demonstrators, organizers said Saturday.
“Everyone has given their backing to the new Supreme Court,” tweeted Freddy Guevara, a leader of the opposition-led 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.
In Saturday’s march, hundreds of people took to a key Caracas motorway to head downtown toward the court building. But uniformed National Guard troops riding motorcycles fired tear gas to disperse them.
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MEXICO CITY: A former state governor from Mexico’s ruling party will stand trial for engaging in organized crime and handling funds of illicit origin after a judge reviewing evidence approved the case, the attorney general’s office said on Saturday.
Javier Duarte, who until 2016 governed the Gulf coast state of Veracruz for President Enrique Pena Nieto’s Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), has been accused by the opposition of siphoning off millions of dollars during his six-year tenure.
On Monday, Duarte was extradited to Mexico from Guatemala, where he was captured in April after spending months on the run. He has denied any wrongdoing. Some doubts had surfaced in the past few days about the strength of the case against