Venezuela’s embattled President Maduro orders writing of new constitution, to the anger of protesters
Venezuela’s socialist leader has ordered the writing of a new constitution, further angering opponents whose intensifying campaign to oust him has brought hundreds of thousands into the streets to demand change.
President Nicolas Maduro was vague in a televised speech Monday evening about how members would be chosen for a citizen assembly to produce a new charter. He hinted some would selected by voters, but many observers expect the government to give itself the power to pick a majority of delegates to the convention.
“This will be a citizens assembly made up of workers,” the president said. “The day has come brothers. Don’t fail me now. Don’t fail [Hugo] Chavez and don’t fail your motherland.”
If the constitutional process goes forward, opposition leaders will need to focus on getting at least some sympathetic figures included in the assembly. That could distract them from organising the near daily street protests that they have managed to keep up for four weeks, political analyst Luis Vicente Leon said.
“It’s a way of calling elections that uses up energy but does not carry risk, because it’s not a universal, direct and secret vote,” Leon said. “And it has the effect of pushing out the possibility of elections this year and probably next year as well.”
Venezuela’s constitution was last rewritten in 1999, early in the 14-year presidency of the late Hugo Chavez, who began the socialist transformation of the oil-exporting nation.
“What the Venezuelan people want isn’t to change the constitution but to change Maduro through voting,” he said at a news conference in eastern Caracas, where anti-government protesters once again clashed with police Monday.
Anti-government protests have been roiling Venezuela for a month, and Borges said more pressure is needed to restore democracy. He called for a series of street actions, including a symbolic pot-banging protest on Monday night and a major demonstration on Wednesday.
On Monday, anti-Maduro protesters tried to march on government buildings in downtown Caracas, but police blocked their path, as authorities have done more than a dozen times the past four weeks. Officers launched tear gas and chased people away from main thoroughfares as the peaceful march dissolved into chaos. Some demonstrators threw stones and petrol bombs and dragged trash into the streets to make barricades.
A separate government-sponsored march celebrating May Day went off without incident in the city.
At least 29 people have died in protests over the past month and hundreds have been injured. The unrest started in reaction to an attempt to nullify the opposition controlled congress, but has become a vehicle for people to vent their fury at Venezuela’s economic problems and crime. Maduro blames the economy’s troubles on sabotage by his opponents and accuses them of conspiring to overthrow him.
