Maduro ‘defiant’ over amnesty for politicians

CARACAS: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced this week an imminent cabinet reshuffle after his ruling Socialist Party was crushed in legislative elections, but he vowed to veto opposition plans for an amnesty law for jailed politicians.

Current National Assembly head Diosdado Cabello added that the government would appoint 12 new supreme court judges, among other “tasks”, before the end of the year.

The new legislature, twothirds of which will be made up of opposition politicians, is set to begin work with the start of the new year.

Venezuela’s government was stunned by Sunday’s elections, winning just 55 seats against the opposition’s 112 and losing control of the National Assembly for the first time since former President Hugo Chavez took office in 1999.

One of the opposition’s main aims in the new legislature is to secure the release of jailed politicians, most notably Leopoldo Lopez, who was jailed for leading antigovernment protests last year that triggered violence, leading to more than 40 deaths.

Maduro, though, was defiant during a three-hour television appearance on Tuesday night: “I will not accept any amnesty law because they violated human rights,” he said.

“They can send me a thousand laws, but the murderers have to be prosecuted and have to pay.”

Venezuela’s opposition in turn urged Maduro and the government “to stop crying and start working”, also citing food shortages.

Anger over shortages propelled the opposition to a long-elusive victory in Sunday’s vote for a new National Assembly. This was despite the government having boosted imports in the runup to the elections.

New legislators plan to launch investigations into corruption and pressure the government into publishing economic data such as inflation, which have not been divulged in a year. – Reuters