Press. voanews.com
Minutes after
Venezuelan lawmakers led off thousands on a march Wednesday to protest
President Nicolas Maduro's plan to rewrite the nation's constitution,
government security forces stopped them short with clouds of tear gas and other
demonstrations of force. The marchers, some carrying handmade white shields
emblazoned with red crosses, were en route to the National Assembly building in
the capital city of Caracas. "We were the deputies in front with
credentials in hand, intending to arrive at the Assembly, and we have been
repressed," said Franco Casella, a lawmaker in the South American
country's opposition-led congress. He said the government uses force "to
violate the rights of its citizens."
Opposition
leaders have vowed to keep up the protests, which have been sustained for more
than a month and left 32 people dead. They're calling on Maduro to step down,
blaming him for the country's failing economy. The president accuses his
opponents of trying to overthrow him and says the protests, with their
accompanying violence, require him to shake up the Venezuelan government. "I
see congress shaking in its boots before a constitutional convention,"
Maduro said of the legislature, speaking to supporters gathered Wednesday
outside the National Electoral Council.
Widespread
condemnation
Maduro's call
for a constituent assembly has drawn condemnation from several Latin American
leaders and the United States, which warned it might impose more sanctions on
Venezuelan officials in response to the move. On Wednesday, a group of U.S.
senators led by Democrat Ben Cardin and Republican Marco Rubio introduced
bipartisan legislation "to provide humanitarian assistance for the
Venezuelan people … and to defend democratic governance and combat widespread
public corruption" in the South American country, according to a Senate
news release on the bill.
"It is in
the strategic interest of the United States to support the restoration of
democracy in Venezuela," Cardin, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's
ranking member, was quoted as saying. The bill includes funding for vital
medicine and food supplements, along with technical assistance to improve
distribution. Among other things, it also calls for an intelligence report on
corruption and drug trafficking by Venezuelan government officials.
Tillerson: 'A
real tragedy'
In remarks to
U.S. State Department employees about the Trump administration's foreign policies,
Secretary Rex Tillerson called the situation in Venezuela "a real
tragedy" and spoke of coordinated efforts to help restore democracy there.
"… We're hopeful that [by] working with others, including interventions by
others in Europe, that we may be able to gain some traction in Venezuela,"
Tillerson said.
Maduro announced
plans for the constituent assembly on Monday night, ostensibly in an effort to
foster peace in a country that has been racked with triple-digit inflation,
food shortages and surging crime numbers. "This will be a citizens'
assembly made up of workers," he said. "The day has come, brothers.
Don't fail me now."
Maduro didn't
reveal many details about how the assembly would be selected, leading
opposition members to speculate that the president would fill the government
body with friendly socialists. They called Maduro's move a scheme to delay
regional elections scheduled for this year, which polling suggests would hand
big losses to Maduro and his socialist allies. "This constituent assembly
seeks to impose a Cuban electoral model," said opposition lawmaker Jorge
Millan. "We Venezuelans are not going to allow fraud."