A lawmaker said Venezuela’s opposition coalition has decided on a triple-barreled strategy to oust Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro before the end of his term.
The opposition is likely to simultaneously pursue a constitutional amendment to shorten presidential terms, a recall referendum and a campaign to pressure the embattled socialist president to resign, said opposition lawmaker Americo De Grazia.
The coalition of more than a dozen mostly centrist political parties reached the agreement on strategy after a long day of meetings on Wednesday.
Photo: AFP
“We can’t commit suicide by having just one card in our hand. Common political sense tells us we need to pursue several strategies,” he said.
Maduro’s six-year term ends in 2019. The opposition won a landslide victory in legislative elections in December last year, and promised to find a way to remove Maduro from power within the first half of this year.
The opposition has for years been riven by internal division and several factions have been advocating different strategies for getting rid of Maduro. All have potential downsides.
One plan is to seek a constitutional amendment cutting presidential terms from six to four years, effectively ending Maduro’s term, but many fear that would be overturned by the Supreme Court, which has never ruled against the executive branch since Maduro’s mentor, Hugo Chavez, won the presidency in 1999.
Last month, the court overturned the one decision Congress has made since being sworn in — a vote to deny Maduro emergency powers to deal with the economy.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court banned Congress from investigating the government’s rushed appointment of 13 high court justices last year, which critics saw as an attempt to pack the court with government supporters.
A recall referendum is no sure thing either, though Maduro’s approval ratings have languished in the 20 percent range for most of his term. The opposition would need to gather nearly 4 million signatures to trigger the recall process. If a vote was called, winning a simple majority would not be enough. The opposition would need to surpass the number of votes Maduro won in 2013.
Maduro already has repeatedly dismissed calls for his resignation, accusing critics of purposely sowing economic chaos to destabilize his administration.
Venezuela is grappling with chronic shortages, a deep recession and widespread fears the country might default on its debt. The IMF predicts inflation, already the world’s highest, will more than double this year, reaching 720 percent.
Last year, the White House declared a national emergency with respect to Venezuela and imposed sanctions on high-ranking officials accused of human rights abuses.
On Thursday, US President Barack Obama renewed the about-to-expire decree, citing continued persecution of opposition politicians, curtailment of free media and government corruption.
Auschwitz survivor Eva Schloss, the stepsister of teenage diarist Anne Frank and a tireless educator about the horrors of the Holocaust, has died. She was 96. The Anne Frank Trust UK, of which Schloss was honorary president, said she died on Saturday in London, where she lived. Britain’s King Charles III said he was “privileged and proud” to have known Schloss, who cofounded the charitable trust to help young people challenge prejudice. “The horrors that she endured as a young woman are impossible to comprehend and yet she devoted the rest of her life to overcoming hatred and prejudice, promoting kindness, courage, understanding
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
DENIAL: Pyongyang said a South Korean drone filmed unspecified areas in a North Korean border town, but Seoul said it did not operate drones on the dates it cited North Korea’s military accused South Korea of flying drones across the border between the nations this week, yesterday warning that the South would face consequences for its “unpardonable hysteria.” Seoul quickly denied the accusation, but the development is likely to further dim prospects for its efforts to restore ties with Pyongyang. North Korean forces used special electronic warfare assets on Sunday to bring down a South Korean drone flying over North Korea’s border town. The drone was equipped with two cameras that filmed unspecified areas, the General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army said in a statement. South Korea infiltrated another drone
Cambodia’s government on Wednesday said that it had arrested and extradited to China a tycoon who has been accused of running a huge online scam operation. The Cambodian Ministry of the Interior said that Prince Holding Group chairman Chen Zhi (陳志) and two other Chinese citizens were arrested and extradited on Tuesday at the request of Chinese authorities. Chen formerly had dual nationality, but his Cambodian citizenship was revoked last month, the ministry said. US prosecutors in October last year brought conspiracy charges against Chen, alleging that he had been the mastermind behind a multinational cyberfraud network, used his other businesses to launder
RSS