Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro yesterday was pushing forward with a controversial weekend vote, despite growing domestic political opposition, international condemnation and deadly street protests.
On Friday, his forces faced small groups of protesters defying a ban he had imposed on demonstrations against the election he has called for today to choose a new body to rewrite the nation’s constitution.
Blockades went up across a few roads in Caracas and in a border town with Colombia, San Cristobal, as well as in Maracaibo and Guayana, but the scale was far smaller than the protests seen earlier this week before the ban took effect.
“It’s normal that there’s fear, but people are still coming out into the streets despite it all,” a lawmaker in the opposition-controlled National Assembly, Freddy Guevara, said at one of the Caracas protests.
Maduro on Thursday said that anyone taking part in protests against the Constituent Assembly risked up to 10 years in prison.
The threat appeared to dampen public anti-government demonstrations of the sort that, in the past four months, have led to 113 deaths — eight of them during a two-day general strike that ended on Thursday.
The most recent reported fatality occurred on Friday when an 18-year-old protester was killed in San Cristobal.
Human rights organizers said another protester, a 23-year-old violinist famous for playing at anti-government protests, had been arrested in Caracas.
An opposition mayor, Alfredo Ramos, was also arrested for not lifting barricades as ordered by a court.
Meanwhile, international censure of Maduro remained fierce.
US Vice President Mike Pence spoke by telephone to a detained prominent Venezuelan opposition leader, Leopoldo Lopez, who early this month was moved from prison to house arrest.
In implicit support for the opposition, Pence praised Lopez’s “courage.”
He also called for the “unconditional release of all political prisoners in Venezuela, free and fair elections, restoration of the [Venezuelan] National Assembly and respect for human rights in Venezuela,” a statement from his office said.
The US this week imposed sanctions on 13 current and former Venezuelan officials, including police and army chiefs, over Maduro’s plan.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said his country would not recognize the results of today’s election, calling the basis of the Constituent Assembly “spurious.”
Yet Maduro has remained determined to see his plan through, with backing from a loyal military.
“We have a card to play, a card that will win this game, and that card is the National Constituent Assembly,” he said.
He urged the opposition to stop its “insurrection” and hold talks instead.
The president has repeatedly accused the US of fomenting the unrest against him.
The new assembly would comprise 545 citizens chosen from across the country and from societal sectors over which Maduro’s government holds influence.
The opposition, which brands the election of the body a ploy by an unpopular “dictator” to cling to power, has called for a boycott of the vote.
About 70 percent of Venezuelans oppose plans for the Constituent Assembly and 80 percent reject Maduro’s leadership, according to the polling firm Datanalisis.
Electoral expert Eugenio Martinez said that most of Venezuela’s 20 million voters would be able to vote twice, raising questions about the validity of final turnout and balloting figures, especially with no foreign election observers present.
Fears of open civil conflict have prompted thousands of Venezuelans to join an exodus into Colombia.
The neighboring country said it would give 150,000 Venezuelans who had overstayed permission to remain another three months before they had to leave.
Air France yesterday announced it was suspending flights to Venezuela ahead of the vote, saying it was monitoring the situation.
Some in Maduro’s administration have broken ranks, most prominently his attorney general. Some diplomats resigned this week, including one at the UN and another at the embassy in Panama.
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