Venezuela's Constituent Assembly Begins Its Work Despite Opposition Protests

The new legislative body in Venezuela, known as the Constituent Assembly, which has the authority to rewrite the constitution and grant more power to the ruling Socialist Party, was inaugurated on Friday, August 4, despite international condemnation and domestic protests. According to Reuters, the 545 members of the Constituent Assembly, in their first step, elected known allies of President Nicolas Maduro to lead this body under the slogan of unity among socialist forces. Former Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez and former Vice President Aristobulo Isturiz were elected as president and vice president of the Constituent Assembly, respectively. Reuters reports that the members of the Constituent Assembly even sidelined Diosdado Cabello, the number two man in the Socialist Party who has been a rival of Maduro for years, from the leadership of this body. Cabello had himself proposed Rodriguez's name for the leadership of the Constituent Assembly. In her inaugural speech, Delcy Rodriguez stated, "There is no crisis of human relations in this assembly. What we have is only love, and those who seek to create a crisis are right-wing fascists." In recent days, Venezuela has witnessed protests from opposition groups who do not recognize the election held on Sunday to establish the Constituent Assembly. On the other hand, the Attorney General of Venezuela has also described this election as "illegal" and has opened a special case to investigate allegations of fraud and manipulation of statistics. Smartmatic, the company that provided electronic voting technology in Venezuela, claimed that at least one million votes were added to the actual vote count in this controversial election, bringing the total to 1.8 million when including these fraudulent votes. However, Nicolas Maduro vehemently denies this accusation. The Reuters report states that the Constituent Assembly was formed in the same complex of palaces where the Venezuelan Congress is located. The Venezuelan Congress is currently in opposition hands, but it is expected to be dissolved by the decree of the Constituent Assembly. However, the formation of the Constituent Assembly in Venezuela has so far led to a wave of international condemnation, with neighboring countries in Latin America, the United States, and the European Union considering Maduro's actions as an attempt to erase symbols of democracy in the country. In this context, Brazil proposed on Friday that Venezuela be suspended from the Mercosur trade agreement until it returns to democracy. The Mercosur regional bloc includes Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela. In this regard, the United States has sanctioned the President of Venezuela and arrested two leaders of the opposition. The statistics of participants in the recent Venezuelan elections have been "manipulated," and the Attorney General of Venezuela is investigating allegations of manipulation in the election statistics.