Balance of Power: Venezuela Heads for Point of No Return
Balance of Power: Venezuela Heads for Point of No Return
(Bloomberg) -- Venezuela is barreling toward a point of no return.
Despite food shortages and increasingly violent protests, President Nicolas Maduro is closing in on a vote that would allow him to rewrite the constitution and effectively end 59 years of modern democracy.
Barring a last-minute compromise, voters on Sunday will select 545 delegates -- including students, pensioners and workers -- for a constitutional convention. The opposition has boycotted the proceedings, essentially guaranteeing Maduro control.
The so-called constituyente has no set term and supersedes the national assembly, which has been a bulwark against Maduro’s autocratic government.
With the country roiled by a strike and state media bombarding voters with propaganda, the U.S. sanctioned 13 officials yesterday, including the interior minister, and threatened more punitive measures.
Some analysts contend that the constituyente is a negotiating tactic, while others say Maduro will use the body to delay indefinitely elections he can’t win. That raises the specter of a Cuba-style regime ruling OPEC’s sixth-largest crude producer at the very heart of the Americas.
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--With assistance from Ben Sills Kathleen Hunter and Rosalind Mathieson