Protests grow in crisis-hit Venezuela
– Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro predicted a “big victory” in a contentious vote yesterday for a new law-making body that is dogged by deadly protests and opposition claims he’s moving to outright dictatorship.
Authorities said virtually all was ready for the election of the 545-member Constituent Council that will have power to dissolve the legislature as it takes on the task of rewriting the constitution.
However, electoral council chief Tibisay Lucena acknowledged that “we have had attacks and (voting) machines burned” in parts of the country.
International alarm has risen over the deepening crisis in the impoverished yet oil-rich South American nation of 30 million people.
Several foreign airlines have suspended flights to the country, and families of US diplomats there have been ordered to leave.
Maduro, who this week decreed a ban on anti-government demonstrations ahead of the vote, called the new body a “triumph”.
“This is the most important election held in Venezuela’s political system,” he said in a speech.
Four months of protests against Maduro’s rule, and more recently the Constituent Assembly plan, have killed 113 people.
The opposition has urged defiance of the protest ban by calling for demonstrations to intensify. It says Maduro, backed by a loyal military, is moving toward autocracy in a bid to cling to power.
It has appealed for a boycott of the election, which surveys suggest is rejected by more than 70% of Venezuelans.
The US, the EU, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico have come out against the vote. – AFP