Women take on the fight against Venezuela’s Maduro

armed groups to sow violence.

The president has started a process to rewrite the current constitution enacted under his late predecessor and mentor Hugo Chavez. The opposition and many protesters say his real aim is to dodge elections.

Maduro supporters also marched in Caracas, railing against what they called “violence by terrorists,” Minister for Women Blanca Eekhout said.

“We are out here pushing for justice against those who are encouraging hatred and rage,” she said, warning, “they are trying to set the stage for civil war.”

The conference of Catholic bishops issued a statement quoting Pope Francis as expressing concern about the “dead, wounded and detained” in the protests and asking both sides to look for “negotiated solutions.”

Maduro and his officials say the crisis rocking the country is a US-backed conspiracy designed to topple him and install a right-wing government.

The US, which had remained relatively quiet over the situation in Venezuela, is now taking a stronger tone against Maduro’s “violent crackdown on protesters.”

The US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, said in a statement that his “disregard for the fundamental rights of his own people has heightened the political and economic crisis in the country.”

She called for the immediate release of “political prisoners,” including Lopez, who has been “held on trumped up charges by the government since 2014.”

Haley also raised the issue of Venezuela’s detention of an American citizen, Joshua Holt, arrested in Caracas nearly a year ago on what US media said was false evidence planted by police.