Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro yesterday was to install a new assembly of his allies, dismissing an international outcry and opposition protests saying he is burying democracy in the nation.
The Constituent Assembly, elected last weekend in a vote marred by violence and allegations of fraud, is to sit in a chamber in the Legislative Palace in Caracas, where the opposition-controlled legislature is located.
The inaugural session of its 500-plus members — who include Maduro’s wife and son — was to take place under high tension.
Photo: Reuters
The opposition has called a mass march in the capital, raising fears of violence that could add to a death toll of more than 125 over the past four months.
“Let there be no provocations, nor should people fall into provocations,” Maduro said late on Thursday.
The body marks a new stage in Venezuela’s rule.
With unlimited powers to dissolve the National Assembly or amend laws, the new body is tasked with rewriting the 1999 constitution brought in under former Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.
Maduro said its work would lift Venezuela out of its worsening spiral of political and economic crisis, though he has not detailed how.
Nor has he given an end date for the Constituent Assembly, which he said would operate for years.
The body is being challenged on several fronts.
Backing opposition allegations of fraud, Smartmatic, a British-based company involved in the vote technology behind the election on Sunday last week, said the official turnout figure had been tampered with and exaggerated by at least 1 million voters.
Although brushed off by Maduro as part of a plot by “the international enemy,” that gave grounds for Venezuelan Attorney General Luisa Ortega to order an investigation.
Ortega said prosecutors had lodged court cases seeking to have the Constituent Assembly annulled, although few in Venezuela believed that would be achieved.
The Venezuelan Supreme Court has systematically sided with the president in blocking prosecutorial or legislative gambits against the government.
Using his daily appearances on state television, Maduro has criticized several of the 40 countries that admonished him for seeing through the creation of the new assembly.
After being hit with US sanctions and called a “dictator” by US President Donald Trump, Maduro said that he was standing up to what he called imperialism.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) plans to make advanced 3-nanometer chips in Japan, stepping up its semiconductor manufacturing roadmap in the country in a triumph for Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s technology ambitions. TSMC is to adopt cutting-edge technology for its second wafer fab in Kumamoto, company chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. That is an upgrade from an original blueprint to produce 7-nanometer chips by late next year, people familiar with the matter said. TSMC began mass production at its first plant in Japan’s Kumamoto in late 2024. Its second fab, which is still under construction, was originally focused on
DETERRENCE EFFORTS: Washington and partners hope demonstrations of force would convince Beijing that military action against Taiwan would carry high costs The US is considering using HMAS Stirling in Western Australia as a forward base to strengthen its naval posture in a potential conflict with China, particularly over Taiwan, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. As part of its Indo-Pacific strategy, Washington plans to deploy up to four nuclear-powered submarines at Stirling starting in 2027, providing a base near potential hot spots such as Taiwan and the South China Sea. The move also aims to enhance military integration with Pacific allies under the Australia-UK-US trilateral security partnership, the report said. Currently, US submarines operate from Guam, but the island could
EMERGING FIELDS: The Chinese president said that the two countries would explore cooperation in green technology, the digital economy and artificial intelligence Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday called for an “equal and orderly multipolar world” in the face of “unilateral bullying,” in an apparent jab at the US. Xi was speaking during talks in Beijing with Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi, the first South American leader to visit China since US special forces captured then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro last month — an operation that Beijing condemned as a violation of sovereignty. Orsi follows a slew of leaders to have visited China seeking to boost ties with the world’s second-largest economy to hedge against US President Donald Trump’s increasingly unpredictable administration. “The international situation is fraught
CSBC Corp, Taiwan (台灣國際造船) yesterday released the first video documenting the submerged sea trials of Taiwan’s indigenous defense submarine prototype, the Hai Kun (海鯤), or Narwhal, showing underwater navigation and the launch of countermeasures. The footage shows the vessel’s first dive, steering and control system tests, and the raising and lowering of the periscope and antenna masts. It offered a rare look at the progress in the submarine’s sea acceptance tests. The Hai Kun carried out its first shallow-water diving trial late last month and has since completed four submerged tests, CSBC said. The newly released video compiles images recorded from Jan. 29 to
RSS