Venezuela: The Opposition’s Calendar to Remove Maduro from Office

HAVANA TIMES — Venezuelan political leader Henry Ramos reiterated today that the opposition is committed to present to the country a constitutional solution next year to bring about a change of government.

The veteran Social Democratic leader, who is a candidate to chair the National Assembly (Congress) under opposition control as of January, said the upcoming legislative agenda remains the strategy to seek a change of government via constitutional and electoral action.

In his Sunday newspaper article in the “El Nuevo País,” daily, Ramos said in general terms the election proposals of the Mesa de Unidad Democrática (MUD) opposition alliance included a change in the current political status and recovery of the autonomy of the legislature.

In the elections of December 6, the opposition won an absolute majority of 112 seats out of 165 seats, which will end, as of January, the government majority after more than 15 years of Chavismo.

Ramos recalled that the MUD priorities of the new Assembly are: an amnesty law for the release of imprisoned opposition leaders and to present a package of laws seeking a solution to the country’s serious economic problems.

He added that the commitment remains in effect to “seek a constitutional, democratic, peaceful and electoral solution to the change of government within a period of six months following the inauguration of the new Assembly.”

“These agreements signed and ratified by all that are part of the democratic unity, are still valid and we will honor them,” said Ramos.

President Nicolas Maduro said he would veto any law to release political prisoners, including Leopoldo Lopez, who was sentenced to nearly 14 years in prison for instigating anti-government protests last year.

Ramos said that all proposed topics have priority for the new legislative period, for “all are dramatically urgent and can be addressed all at once without exclusion or delay.”

“The political, social and economic problems that affect us are inextricably interwoven and are all part of the same crisis. One and all of them must be addressed at the same time,” he said.

Lopez’s party, Voluntad Popular (Popular Will), is the flagship promoting a recall referendum against Maduro, legally possible as of April 2016, when the president’s six-year term reaches the half-way point.

Venezuela is Cuba’s most important political and economic ally and the situation in the South American country is being watched very closely.  The island receives all of its imported oil from Venezuela under a highly favorable trade agreement which allows Cuba to pay in-kind with medical and other professional services.