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WORLD NEWS Friday 4 august 2017

Showdown set in Venezuela as new assembly prepares for power

By FABIOLA SANCHEZ Shifter, president of the
CHRISTINE ARMARIO Washington-based think
Associated Press tank Inter-American Dia-
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) logue. “To attach the term
— Venezuela is nearing a democracy to Venezuela
showdown, with President with this new constituent
Nicolas Maduro vowing to assembly is on very weak
install a new constituent ground.”
assembly that will trump Prominent constituent as-
every other branch of sembly members like Dios-
government and opposi- dado Cabello, the leader
tion leaders calling for a of the ruling socialist party,
mass protest to ensure del- have said they plan to tar-
egates know their arrival is get the opposition-con-
unwelcome. trolled congress and the
The first meeting of the 545 country’s chief prosecutor,
delegates is expected to Luisa Ortega Diaz, a long-
convene Friday at the leg- time supporter of the late
islative palace in Caracas Hugo Chavez who recently
— only yards (meters) from broke with Maduro. As one
the room where the oppo- of its first tasks, Maduro has
sition-controlled National ordered the assembly to
Assembly holds its sessions. declare Ortega Diaz’s of-
The legislative palace has fice in a state of emergen-
been witness to bloody cy and entirely restructure
clashes in recent weeks Opposition lawmakers Angel Medina, left, and Manuela Bolivar speak with the media upon their it.
and Friday’s installation of arrival to Venezuelan General Prosecutor’s office to introduce a petition asking for an investigation In a continuing show of de-
the all-powerful assembly, into the recent constituent assembly elections in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Aug. 3, 2017. fiance, Ortega Diaz filed a
Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro defiantly dismissed allegations that official turnout figures for
which Maduro has vowed the election of an all-powerful constituent assembly were manipulated, accusing the international court order Thursday de-
to use to strip opposition software firm behind the claim of bowing to U.S. pressure to cast doubt over a body that he hopes manding that the installa-
lawmakers of their consti- will entrench an even more staunchly socialist state. tion of the new assembly be
tutional immunity, sets the (AP Photo/Wil Riera) halted. The request, filed to
stage for an intensified tampered with — accusa- refused to recognize the “There has been a gradu- a lower court in an appar-
power struggle. Opposi- tions that Maduro and the assembly and many within al erosion of democratic ent attempt to circumvent
tion lawmakers in congress National Electoral Council Venezuela fear its installa- practice and this is a sig- the government-stacked
have vowed they will only have dismissed. A growing tion will open a dark chap- nificant line that has been Supreme Court, was almost
be removed by force. list of foreign nations has ter in the nation’s history. crossed,” said Michael certain to be denied.q
“The only way they’ll get us
out of here is by killing us,”
declared Freddy Guevara, Ecuador:
the National Assembly’s
first vice president. “They President strips VP of powers over bribe allegations
will never have the seat
that the people of Venezu-
ela gave us.” By GONZALO SOLANO alition. Moreno said loyalty implies surfaced audio recording
Sunday’s election of the Associated Press In a signed decree, More- serving the country in unity, in which an executive at
constituent assembly has QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Ec- no said he was withdraw- “which has not been duly Brazilian construction giant
come under mounting uadorean President Lenin ing all the tasks that had (carried out) by the vice Odebrecht and an Ecua-
scrutiny after the CEO of Moreno stripped his vice been assigned to Vice president,” according to dorean official discuss al-
an international voting president of his authority President Jorge Glas since the decree. leged bribe requests by
technology company said Thursday over corruption both took office in May, The move came after a Glas in exchange for public
Wednesday that “without allegations that emerged which included overseeing defiant letter from Glas work contracts awarded
any doubt” the voter turn- amid a battle for power a production council and the previous evening and by former President Rafael
out numbers had been within their ruling leftist co- earthquake reconstruction. on the heels of a recently Correa’s government.q