US TELLS DIPLOMATS’ FAMILIES TO LEAVE CARACAS AS CRISIS WORSENS
CARACAS— The US government ordered family members of employees at its embassy in Venezuela to leave on Thursday as a political crisis deepened ahead of a controversial vote that critics fear would end democracy in the oil-rich country.
Violence continued to rage on the street, with another seven people killed during the latest opposition-led strike against President Nicolas Maduro’s planned election for a powerful new Constituent Assembly on Sunday.
Adding to Venezuela’s growing international isolation, Colombian airline Avianca suddenly stopped operations in the country on Thursday due to “operational and security limitations.”
Maduro’s critics were planning to pile more pressure on the unpopular leftist leader by holding roadblocks across the nation dubbed “The Takeover of Venezuela” on Friday.
“We’re going to keep fighting, we’re not leaving the streets,” said opposition lawmaker Jorge Millan.
The government banned protests from Friday to Tuesday, raising the likelihood of more violence in volatile Venezuela.
Stocking up on food
Many people have been stocking up food and staying home.
As well as ordering relatives to leave, the US State Department on Thursday also authorized the voluntary departure of any US government employee at its compound-like hilltop embassy in Caracas.
President Donald Trump had warned Maduro of economic sanctions if the Venezuelan constitution was tampered with.
Over 100 people have died in antigovernment unrest convulsing Venezuela since April, when the opposition launched protests demanding conventional elections to end nearly two decades of socialist rule.
Many streets remained barricaded and deserted on Thursday on the second day of a nationwide work stoppage.
Plenty of rural areas and working-class urban neighbor- hoods were bustling, however, and the strike appeared less massively supported than a one-day shutdown last week.
With Venezuela already brimming with shuttered stores and factories, amid a blistering four-year recession, the effectiveness of any strike can be hard to gauge. Many Venezuelans live hand-tomouth and say they must keep working.
Condemnation
There has been widespread international condemnation of Maduro’s Constituent Assembly plan. The United States on Wednesday announced sanctions against 13 current and former officials for corruption, undermining democracy and participating in repression.
Government officials and candidates for the Constituent Assembly wrapped up campaigning on Thursday with a rally in Caracas with Maduro.
Maduro, a former bus driver and union leader, reiterated that changing the constitution was the only way to bring peace to Venezuela. He blasted threats of further sanctions from “emperor Donald Trump” and hit back at accusations that he is morphing into a tyrant.