{"id":35226,"date":"2017-07-17T12:10:42","date_gmt":"2017-07-17T12:10:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=35226"},"modified":"2017-07-17T12:10:42","modified_gmt":"2017-07-17T12:10:42","slug":"venezuela-opposition-plots-zero-hour-after-big-anti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/world-news\/venezuela-opposition-plots-zero-hour-after-big-anti.html","title":{"rendered":"Venezuela opposition plots “zero hour” after big anti"},"content":{"rendered":"

Venezuela opposition plots “zero hour” after big anti<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Venezuela opposition plots “zero hour” after big anti:- Energized by a massive vote against President Nicolas Maduro in an unofficial plebiscite, Venezuela’s opposition mulled on Monday how to escalate protests and block a new congress it fears may enshrine Socialist Party hegemony.<\/span><\/p>\n

After months of street rallies that have led to nearly 100 deaths, the Democratic Unity coalition brought millions onto the streets on Sunday for an informal referendum intended to de-legitimize a leader they call a dictator.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, opposition leaders are promising “Zero Hour” in Venezuela to demand a general election and stop the leftist Maduro’s plan to create a controversial new legislative super-body called a Constituent Assembly in a July 30 vote.<\/span><\/p>\n

Opposition tactics could include lengthy road blockades and sit-ins, a national strike, or possibly even a march on the Miraflores presidential palace, similar to events before a short-lived coup against Maduro’s successor Hugo Chavez in 2002.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Today, Venezuela stood up with dignity to say freedom does not go backwards, democracy is not negotiated,” Julio Borges, who leads the opposition-controlled legislature, said shortly after midnight when the referendum results were announced.<\/span><\/p>\n

“We don’t want a fraudulent Constituent Assembly imposed on us. We don’t want to be Cuba. We don’t want to be a country without freedom,” he added, promising further announcements on opposition strategy during Monday.<\/span><\/p>\n

Maduro, whose term is due to end in early 2019, dismissed Sunday’s opposition event as an internal exercise by the opposition with no bearing on his government.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Don’t go crazy, calm down,” he said on Sunday in a message to the opposition, vowing his Constituent Assembly would bring peace to the volatile nation of 30 million people.<\/span><\/p>\n

Maduro, 54, a former bus driver and long-serving foreign minister for Chavez, narrowly won election in 2013 but has seen his ratings plunge, to just over 20 percent, during a brutal economic crisis in the South American OPEC member.<\/span><\/p>\n

Opposition “Show of Force”<\/span><\/p>\n

Though polls show the opposition has majority support and his foes repeatedly call for a free and fair election as their No. 1 demand, Maduro insists they are U.S. pawns intent on sabotaging the economy and bringing him down through violence.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most Venezuelans oppose the Constituent Assembly, which will have power to rewrite the constitution and annul the current opposition-led legislature, but Maduro is pressing on anyway for the vote in two weeks’ time.<\/span><\/p>\n

In three questions at Sunday’s event, opposition supporters voted overwhelmingly – by 98 percent – to reject the proposed new assembly, urge the military to defend the existing constitution, and support elections before Maduro’s term ends, according to academics monitoring the vote for the opposition.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sunday’s nearly 7.2 million participation compared with 7.7 million opposition votes in the 2015 legislative elections that it won by a landslide and 7.3 million votes for the opposition in a 2013 presidential poll narrowly won by Maduro.<\/span><\/p>\n

“The result is a remarkable show of force for Venezuela’s opposition,” New York-based Torino Capital said in a research note, noting the vote was only called two weeks previously and participation meant openly defying the government.<\/span><\/p>\n

“We can assume that the number of people voting was less than that which would turn out to vote in a regular election ..<\/span><\/p>\n

The results seem to confirm that the opposition would easily defeat the government in any election.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The political turmoil has taken a heavy toll on Venezuela: 95 deaths in unrest since April, thousands of injuries, hundreds of arrests, and further damage to an economy already in its fourth year of decline.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-venezuela-politics-idUSKBN1A20BR<\/span><\/p>\n

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