Whether or not the initiative comes to fruition remains doubtful, but the growing tensions in the crisis-ridden and oil-rich OPEC nation couldn’t be any worse unless an all-out coup were to occur.
During a special congressional session on Sunday, reports Reuters, opposition lawmaker Julio Borges said, “It is a political and legal trial against President Nicolas Maduro to see what responsibility he has in the constitutional rupture that has broken democracy, human rights and the future of the country.”
The socialist government succeeded in blocking the recall referendum on Thursday by annulling a key stage in the process, suspending the recall signature drive a week before it was to start. On Friday, Henrique Capriles, one of the leading opposition figures said the move violated the country’s constitution, accusing the socialist government of staging “a coup d’etat.”
Maduro’s ruling party has accused the opposition of fraud in the signature drive and says the opposition coalition is attempting to seek control of the country’s crude oil reserves through a coup. But many Venezuelans fear that preventing the recall referendum will only plunge the already volatile country into all-out war.
On Saturday, thousands of Venezuelan women, most of them dressed in white, took to the streets in Caracas against Maduro’s decision to block the recall referendum. “Brave Venezuela, you will be set free!” chanted the women.
One 65-year-old woman, a grandmother, told Business Recorder, “We can’t handle this anymore, there is no food, there is no medicine, there is no future for my grandchildren nor for any Venezuelans.”
Meanwhile, in Washington D.C., Organization of American States chief Luis Almagro on Saturday had angry words for Maduro. “Only dictatorships deprive their citizens of rights, ignore the legislature and hold political prisoners,” he wrote in a statement.
“Maduro has lost all of his legitimacy after leaving the people of Venezuela without electoral rights.”
The opposition is calling for a major “peaceful protest” on Wednesday this week, calling it “The takeover of Venezuela.”
