Venezuela’s Attorney General Calls on the Population to Reject Maduro’s Constituent Assembly

By Nestor Rojas Mavares (dpa)

HAVANA TIMES — On Monday, Venezuela’s Attorney General, Luisa Ortega Diaz, called upon the Venezuelan people to not recognize the “presumed result” of the National Constituent Assembly election, which took place on Sunday. International rejection for President Nicolas Maduro’s project to alter the Constitution also continues to grow.

Meanwhile, Maduro has said that the Constituent Assembly election provided “amazing” results amid the wave of opposition protests and calculated that between two and three million people couldn’t vote because of roadblocks and barricades during these protests.

“I estimate that between two and three million people couldn’t vote because of the barricades, bonfires, bombs and private TV campaign which joined the media war, ignoring the people,” he claimed at the National Electoral Council’s headquarters.

The Attorney General has joined the opposition and several countries who are rejecting the Constituent Assembly, which reached a new climax with the US announcing that it was going to impose personal sanctions on Maduro, who it calls a “dictator”.

Meanwhile, the opposition have said that Maduro came out of the election for his Constitutional Assembly “defeated”, as popular resistance forced the Government to “invent” inexistent votes.

“I am addressing the country as the Attorney General and member of the Republican Moral Council to not recognize the origin, process and alleged result of the National Constituent Assembly election,” Ortega Diaz pointed out when reading a statement.

She denounced the Assembly, which was pushed forward by Maduro, “lacks legitimacy”, as it was summoned in breach of the Constitution and its only objective is to put “absolute power into the hands of a minority.”

Similarly, she lamented the climate of violence and polarization that the Assembly election has created, during which at least 10 people died.

The Attorney General harshly criticized the fact that Maduro had given the “order” to the Constituent Assembly to make “restructuring” the Attorney General’s Office in depth one of its priorities, which would reveal the government’s real intention which is to do away with independent powers.

Ortega explained that this is because the Attorney General’s Office has become a “very uncomfortable” institution because it has become committed to investigating cases of corruption and the abuse of human rights which would involve “current Government officials.”

A short time before, the president of the National Assembly (Congress), opposition leader Julio Borges, said that the population had defeated “the Government overwhelmingly”, by refusing to accept “an absolutely illegal, unconstitutional Constituent Assembly and outside of what the democratic framework stipulates.”

“Venezuela is closer to its freedom today than it was yesterday, not further away, what Nicolas Maduro has done with this Constituent Assembly is dig his own grave a little deeper. In the end, this step just means that we have a Government which is so desperate, so weak, so completely illegitimate, that it has to invent 8 million votes which don’t exist,” he denounced.

According to figures from the government controlled National Electoral Council, some 8.08 million voters took part in the election for the 545 members of the Constituent Assembly whose mission is to rewrite the Constitution, reestablish public authorities and to bring those responsible for acts of political violence during the last few months to justice, who Maduro blames on his adversaries.

The opposition coalition refused to take part in Sunday’s vote and have denounced Maduro’s real objective which is to modify the Constitution to his own fancy, to dissolve public authorities who are against him and to persecute dissidents to impose a dictatorship.

Other opposition leaders similarly questioned government announced results from Sunday’s election, claiming that approximately 41.53% of the registered voters went to the polls.

The opposition had published some estimates before the official results were announced on Sunday, which placed voting at about about 12% of the registration list, made up of 19.4 million voters.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump’s government imposed personal sanctions on Maduro on Monday, accusing him of breaking the constitutional and democratic order in Venezuela.

This means that any assets he might have in the US will be frozen and all US citizens are banned from doing business with Maduro.

Maduro has repeated that he feels “proud” about these sanctions, stating that he doesn’t receive orders from foreign governments.