Venezuelan leader bans protests
Demonstrations’ death toll rises to 106 ahead of election to rewrite constitution.
CARACAS, Venezuela — The official death toll from four months of protests against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro rose to 106 Thursday as tension rose ahead of Sunday’s controversial election of assembly members charged with writing a new constitution. Three new fatalities came as Maduro declared all protests from Friday through Sunday to be illegal.
“All meetings, public protests and concentrations of persons in the national territory are prohibited that could disturb or affect the electoral process,” Interior Minister Nestor Reverol said in a televised speech. “Whoever organizes or instigates activities designed to upset the electoral process or the social life of the country will be sent to prison for five to 10 years.”
Observers doubted that opponents to the Maduro government will heed the order. About 4,000 protesters have been arrested since the wave of demonstrations began despite similar bans.
A general nationwide strike called Wednesday for 48 hours appeared to be holding in the capital, Caracas, and other cities. In neighborhoods rich and poor across Caracas, protesters have erected barricades as a gesture of protest against Sunday’s vote.
And the Democratic Unity coalition of political parties was planning to go ahead with a mass protest Friday.
Opposition leaders say the vote is a ruse by Maduro to perpetuate himself in power and ensure his loyalists
‘We have no other option, between winning or dying.’ — Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, on Sunday’s election
take control of the National Assembly from the opposition. Maduro’s approval ratings in recent polls have dropped to 20%.
Despite condemnation by the Organization of American States and international leaders, Maduro has shown no indication of calling off the balloting.
“We have no other option, between winning or dying,” he told a campaign gathering Thursday in downtown Caracas. “The oligarchies of the world have reacted because they fear a new Venezuelan Constitution. Who do we obey? In Venezuela, the people govern.”
A total of 13 current and former senior officials in Maduro’s government were sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department this week for their role in “undermining democratic processes and institutions” and for responsibility in the government’s “rampant violence against opposition protesters.”
Meanwhile, Colombian migration authorities report rising numbers of Venezuelans fleeing their country for at least temporary stays. More than 560,000 Venezuelans have applied for a “border mobility card” that allows them multiple entries, and more than 350,000 have moved to Colombia in the last year, according to the migration division of the Foreign Ministry.
In another sign of rising tension, Colombia-based airline Avianca, which provides nearly half of all international flights in and out of Venezuela, announced Wednesday that it is indefinitely suspending flights, effective immediately.
Airline executives told reporters in Bogota, the Colombian capital, that rising thefts of luggage, frequent airport power outages and “irregular” jet fuel quality at the Maiquetia international airport in Caracas were reasons for the stoppage. Flights will resume if “technical conditions and security improve,” airline officials said.