Venezuelan troops in ‘siege’ of President Maduro’s arch critic

Security forces have surrounded Venezuela’s attorney general’s office before a session of the new constitutional assembly that is expected to debate removing the one-time loyalist turned arch government critic.

Luisa Ortega denounced what she called a military "siege" on Twitter, publishing photographs apparently taken from security cameras showing about 30 national guardsmen in riot gear standing outside her headquarters, in Caracas. Access to the central block where the building is located was completely restricted amid a heavy troop deployment.

Ms Ortega had ordered an investigation of last weekend's elections, which the opposition boycotted as what it claimed was an unconstitutional attempt by President Nicolás Maduro to strengthen his grip on power. She had also said that prosecutors had lodged court cases seeking to have the 545-member assembly, which is now made up entirely of pro-government loyalists, annulled.

The deployment of forces around her office came as members of the newly sworn-in assembly pledged to move quickly against Mr Maduro’s opponents, beginning as early as Saturday, when the body meets for the second time.

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“Don’t think we’re going to wait weeks, months or years,” the former foreign minister Delcy Rodríguez said on Friday after she was voted unanimously by all 545 delegates to lead the assembly. “Tomorrow we start to act. The violent fascists, those who wage economic war on the people, those who wage psychological war, justice is coming for you.”

International criticism

The constitutional assembly was seated despite strong criticism from the United States, other countries and the Venezuelan opposition, which fear the assembly will be a tool for imposing dictatorship. Supporters say it will pacify a country rocked by violent protests. Its installation is virtually certain to intensify a political crisis that has brought four months of protests in which at least 120 people have died and hundreds have been jailed.

The vote has also come under question amid allegations of fraud and vote rigging, which election officials and the government have rejected as part of an international campaign to attack the president. Smartmatic, a UK-based company involved in the vote technology behind the ballot, said that “without a doubt” the official turnout figure had been tampered with and exaggerated by at least a million voters.

Mr Maduro vows the assembly will strip opposition legislators of their constitutional immunity from prosecution, while members of congress say they will be removed only by force. But the opposition is struggling to regain its footing in the face of the government’s strong-arm tactics and the re-emergence of old internal divisions.

Several opposition activists have been jailed in recent days, others are rumoured to be seeking exile and one leader has broken ranks from the opposition alliance to say his party will field candidates in regional elections despite widespread mistrust of Venezuela’s electoral system. In a sign of its apparent demoralised state, only a few hundred demonstrators showed up for a Friday protest against the constitutional assembly, one of the smallest turnouts in months.

Security forces

Mr Maduro accuses his opponents of using violence and argues that the constitutional assembly is the best way to restore peace. On Friday he heralded security forces who have been on the front lines of daily street battles, claiming that 580 of them had suffered serious injuries from attacks by “terrorist” protesters.

“I feel deeply the wounds of each one of you,” he said addressing a small group of injured national guardsmen. “With your bodies as your shield, you have defended the right to peace.”

Maduro was chosen by his predecessor, Hugo Chávez, to continue Chávez’s socialist policies after the former leader’s death, in 2013. Maduro has presided over the oil-rich country’s worst economic and political crisis in recent history. He has said the country is the victim of an economic war led by the “international right wing” while the opposition blames Venezuela’s misfortunes on poor management and rampant corruption.

An increasing number of foreign governments have sided with the opposition, refusing to recognise the constitutional assembly and further isolating Mr Maduro’s government.

On Friday the Vatican urged him to suspend the new body, expressing "deep worry for the radicalisation and worsening" of the turmoil in Venezuela.

Last week the United States imposed targeted sanctions on Maduro – whom Trump has called a dictator – and more than a dozen of his close allies, freezing any US assets they might have.

Although the sanctions are not meant to affect the Venezuelan people, the economist and pollster Luis Vicente León warned that the effects of the political instability would hit the average citizen hard. “Times of never-before-seen scarcity are coming,” he said in a statement in which he called on Venezuelans to prepare.

The country’s currency, the bolivar, lost more than 17 per cent of its value against the dollar on Thursday, placing scarce imported food and medicine further out of reach for many Venezuelans.

The US president, Donald Trump, and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, agreed that Mr Maduro must restore the rights of the Venezuelan people, according to the transcript of a telephone conversation by the White House.

© AP, Guardian