Tag Archives: dictatorship

Venezuela’s Maduro seeks debt negotiations after U.S. sanctions

FILE PHOTO: Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro speaks during a meeting at Miraflores Palace in Caracas, Venezuela August 25, 2017. Miraflores Palace/Handout via REUTERS

By Deisy Buitrago and Corina Pons

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has invited bondholders to unspecified “negotiations” over the country’s foreign debt in coming days, in response to recent U.S. financial sanctions.

With Venezuela deep in recession and its currency reserves at their lowest in more than two decades, the Maduro government and state oil company PDVSA have to pay about $4 billion in debt and interest during the rest of 2017.

“All bondholders are invited to various rounds of negotiations over the next few weeks,” the president said in a speech late on Thursday to the new Constituent Assembly.

He reiterated Venezuela would keep honoring debt, but said he wanted to talk with bondholders affected by sanctions recently imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Maduro said Vice President Tareck El Aissami, already under U.S. financial sanctions over drug trafficking allegations, and Finance Minister Ramon Lobo would coordinate talks and some “bilateral conversations” with bondholders had already begun.

In the same speech, Maduro said Venezuela would seek to “free” itself of the U.S. dollar and “implement a new system of international payments” using currencies such as the yuan, yen, rupee, euro and ruble.

The president did not, however, specify whether paying in a different currency was an option his government wanted to discuss with bondholders.

The Washington-based Institute of International Finance, which represents large banks and financial institutions, said it was advising a group of holders of Venezuelan bonds.

“This informal group will take note of the Venezuelan announcements and discuss how to proceed,” IIF Executive Managing Director Hung Tran told Reuters. The group was made up of bondholders from the United States and elsewhere, he said.

Tran said Venezuela could not change the currency of bonds without agreement by all or a large majority of holders.

Last month, Trump, who brands Maduro a “dictator,” signed an executive order that prohibits Americans from dealing in new debt issued by the Venezuelan government or PDVSA.

That could complicate any debt refinancing attempts.

Washington has also sanctioned PDVSA’s finance boss Simon Zerpa, meaning U.S. businesses are barred from dealing with him, and even Maduro himself in measures intended to punish the Venezuelan government for alleged corruption and rights abuses.

“I will be announcing Venezuela’s definitive response to the financial aggression we – and the international investors – have suffered from Donald Trump and (opposition leader) Julio Borges,” Maduro added in the speech on Thursday.

Borges, the head of the opposition-led congress whose role has been overridden by the Constituent Assembly, has been spearheading an opposition campaign for foreign financial institutions to put the squeeze on Venezuela’s government.

“Venezuela will take a position to defend the judicial and financial security of the republic and its investors or holders of financial instruments,” Maduro added.

BOND PRICES STABLE

Though Maduro gave no further details of what his government wanted to discuss with bondholders or where talks would be held, he did say 74 percent were American or Canadian.

Three bondholders consulted by Reuters said they had not received any formal approach to dialogue, though two said intermediaries for the government had been communicating with some investors informally.

“We didn’t receive an invitation or anything like that. Even if we had we don’t think we would take it too seriously,” said one portfolio manager at a large New York firm that owns Venezuelan debt, asking not to be named.

In trading on Friday, Venezuelan government and PDVSA bonds were little changed in price.

The OPEC nation of 30 million people is in the fourth year of a recession, with its population grappling with triple-digit inflation and shortages of food and medicine.

Critics say a long-failing socialist economic system is to blame for Venezuela’s financial troubles, while the government blames an alleged “economic war” by domestic foes and Washington.

International reserves stood at $9.873 billion on Wednesday, compared with nearly $30 billion five years ago, central bank data shows. They are at their lowest level since 1995.

Most of the country’s reserves are tied up in gold that cannot be used in financial transactions without going through a certification process in another country.

In another speech on Friday, Maduro said that Venezuela would begin selling its oil, gas, gold and “all products” in currencies other than the U.S. dollar, but gave no further details of the intended changes in export transactions.

(Additional reporting by Diego Ore and Andrew Cawthorne in Caracas, Davide Scigliuzzo in New York and Lesley Wroughton in Washington; Writing by Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by W Simon and Andrew Hay)

Sore at Macron’s ‘dictatorship’ criticism, Venezuela blasts France

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro speaks during a meeting at Miraflores Palace in Caracas, Venezuela August 25, 2017. Miraflores Palace/Handout via REUTERS

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela accused France on Wednesday of joining an “imperialist” campaign after President Emmanuel Macron portrayed the widely criticized socialist government as dictatorial.

Adding to criticism from Washington, the United Nations and major Latin American nations, Macron on Tuesday called President Nicolas Maduro’s administration “a dictatorship trying to survive at the cost of unprecedented humanitarian distress.”

Many countries are outraged at the Venezuelan government’s overriding of the opposition-led congress, crackdown on protests, jailing of hundreds of foes and failure to allow the entry of foreign humanitarian aid to ease a severe economic crisis.

Authorities say local opposition leaders want to topple Maduro in a coup with U.S. support, but its new Constituent Assembly will guarantee peace.

“Comments like this are an attack on Venezuelan institutions and seem to form part of the permanent imperialist obsession with attacking our people,” the government said in a communique responding to Macron.

“The French head-of-state’s affirmations show a deep lack of knowledge of the reality of Venezuela, whose people live in complete peace,” the statement said.

It added that the assembly and upcoming state elections demonstrated the health of local democracy.

Leaders of the fractious opposition coalition boycotted the July 30 election of the assembly, branding it an affront to democracy.

They called for an early presidential election, which Maduro would likely lose as his popularity has sunk along with an economy blighted by triple-digit inflation and food shortages.

France’s foreign ministry on Wednesday reiterated Macron’s comments and said it was studying the best way to accompany all initiatives that would enable credible dialogue that included regional countries.

“It is up to the Venezuelan authorities to give quick pledges in terms of respecting rule of law and fundamental freedoms,” spokeswoman Agnes Romatet-Espagne told reporters in a daily briefing. “The European Union and France will evaluate their relationship with Venezuela on this basis.”

(Reporting by Andrew Cawthorne in Caracas, Sudip Kar-Gupta in Paris; Editing by Girish Gupta/W Simon/Ken Ferris)

Trump slaps sanctions on Venezuela; Maduro sees effort to force default

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro speaks during a meeting at Miraflores Palace in Caracas, Venezuela August 25, 2017. Miraflores Palace/Handout via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS PICTURE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY.

By Alexandra Ulmer and David Lawder

CARACAS/WASHINGTON/ (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order that prohibits dealings in new debt from the Venezuelan government or its state oil company on Friday in an effort to halt financing that the White House said fuels President Nicolas Maduro’s “dictatorship.”

Maduro, who has frequently blamed the United States for waging an “economic war” on Venezuela, said the United States was seeking to force Venezuela to default — but he said it would not succeed.

The order is Washington’s biggest sanctions blow to date against Maduro and is intended to punish his leftist government for what Trump has called an erosion of democracy in the oil-rich country, which is already reeling from an economic crisis.

It suggests a weakening in already strained relations between the two countries. Just three days ago, Maduro said the relations between Caracas and Washington were at their lowest point ever.

“All they’re trying to do to attack Venezuela is crazy,” said Maduro on a TV broadcast on Friday. “With the efforts of our people, it will fail and Venezuela will be stronger, more free, and more independent.”

Venezuela faces a severe recession with millions suffering food and medicine shortages and soaring inflation. The South American nation relies on oil for some 95 percent of export revenue.

Citgo Petroleum [PDVSAC.UL], the U.S. refiner of Venezuela’s ailing state-run oil company PDVSA, is “practically” being forced to close by the order, warned Maduro, adding that a preliminary analysis showed the sanctions would impede Venezuelan crude exports to the United States.

He said he was calling “urgent” meetings with U.S. clients of Venezuelan oil.

The new sanctions ban trade in any new issues of U.S.-dollar-denominated debt of the Venezuelan government and PDVSA [PDVSA.UL] because the ban applies to use of the U.S. financial system.

As a result, it will be it tricky for PDVSA to refinance its heavy debt burden. Investors had expected that PDVSA would seek to ease upcoming payments through such an operation, as it did last year, which usually requires that new bonds be issued.

Additional financial pressure on PDVSA could push the cash-strapped company closer to a possible default, or bolster its reliance on key allies China and Russia, which have already lent Caracas billions of dollars.

“They want us to fall into default,” said Maduro, adding that just under two-thirds of Venezuelan bond holders are in the United States.

Maduro insisted that Venezuela would continue paying its debts.

The decision also blocks Citgo Petroleum from sending dividends back to the South American nation, a senior official said, in a further blow to PDVSA’s coffers.

However, the order stops short of a major ban on crude trading that could have disrupted Venezuela’s oil industry and worsened the country’s faltering economy.

It also protects holders of most existing Venezuelan government and PDVSA bonds, who were relieved the sanctions did not go further. Venezuelan and PDVSA bonds were trading broadly higher on Friday afternoon.

“Maduro may no longer take advantage of the American financial system to facilitate the wholesale looting of the Venezuelan economy at the expense of the Venezuelan people,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Friday.

Venezuela’s Oil Ministry and PDVSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 

PDVSA UNDER PRESSURE

PDVSA, the financial engine of Maduro’s government, is already struggling due to low global oil prices, mismanagement, allegations of corruption and a brain drain.

Washington last month sanctioned PDVSA’s finance vice president, Simon Zerpa, complicating some of the company’s operations as Americans are now banned from doing business with him.

Trump has so far spared Venezuela from broader sanctions against its vital oil industry, but officials have said such actions are under consideration. The Republican president has also warned of a “military option” for Venezuela, although White House national security adviser H.R. McMaster said on Friday that no such actions are anticipated in the “near future.”

Venezuela has for months struggled to find financing because of PDVSA’s cash flow problems and corruption scandals have led institutions to tread cautiously, regardless of sanctions.

Russia and its state oil company Rosneft have emerged as an increasingly important source of financing for PDVSA, according to a Reuters report.

On at least two occasions, the Venezuelan government has used Russian cash to avoid imminent defaults on payments to bondholders, a high-level PDVSA official told Reuters.

“At this point our view is that the country can scrape by without defaulting this year, largely with the help of Chinese and Russian backing and by further squeezing imports. Next year is a tossup,” said Raul Gallegos, an analyst with the consultancy Control Risks.

However, China has grown reticent to extend further loans because of payment delays and corruption. Russia has been negotiating financing in exchange for oil assets in Venezuela, sources have told Reuters, but going forward it would be difficult for the OPEC member to provide enough assets to keep up loans destined for bond payments.

Venezuela’s government has around $2 billion in available cash to make $1.3 billion in bond payments by the end of the year and to cover the import of food and medicine, according to documents reviewed by Reuters.

 

(Reporting by David Lawder in Washington and Alexandra Ulmer in Caracas; Additional reporting by Deisy Buitrago, Girish Gupta, Eyanir Chinea, Corina Pons, Deisy Buitrago and Hugh Bronstein in Caracas, Marianna Parraga in Houston, Tim Ahmann and Ayesha Rascoe in Washington, Rodrigo Campos and Riham Alkousaa in New York; Writing by Alexandra Ulmer and Girish Gupta; Editing by Leslie Adler)

 

Venezuela-U.S. relations at lowest point ever: Maduro

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro talks to the media during a news conference at Miraflores Palace in Caracas, Venezuela August 22, 2017. REUTERS/Marco Bello

By Brian Ellsworth and Julia Symmes Cobb

CARACAS/BOGOTA (Reuters) – Relations between Caracas and Washington are at their lowest point ever, Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro said on Tuesday in a speech at the presidential palace for international media that was televised to the nation.

“Unfortunately we are in the worst moment of the relationship with the government of the United States,” said Maduro.

He said that he and U.S. President Donald Trump should be respectful of each other and that relations between Venezuela and the United States should be normalized and a dialog established. “You and I should talk,” said Maduro. “Only by speaking can we understand each other.”

Earlier this month during an impromptu session with reporters in Washington, Trump said, “The people are suffering and they are dying. We have many options for Venezuela including a possible military option if necessary.”

Maduro is struggling to weather a political crisis that has shaken his government, led to months of violent protests and his being accused of trying to establish a dictatorship through a new structure for the government that has been opposed nationally and internationally.

Venezuela is also racked by a severe economic crisis that has led to chronic shortages of food and medicine.

During his address on Tuesday, Maduro spoke at length about actions the United States has taken in the region and elsewhere, specifically mentioning the war in Iraq.

Maduro, like his predecessor Hugo Chavez, has frequently railed against Washington, blaming it for Venezuela’s problems, including crushing inflation and the collapse of the local currency.

In recent weeks, the government has cracked down on the opposition including one of Maduro’s most outspoken critics in his government, Venezuela’s top prosecutor Luisa Ortega.

Ortega fled to Colombia last week with her legislator husband after saying she feared for her life. She is now going to Brazil, according to Colombian authorities.

During his speech, Maduro said Venezuela would seek an international arrest warrant for Ortega, and he accused her of having worked with the United States for a long time.

(Reporting by Brian Ellsworth and Julia Symmes Cobb; Additional reporting by Diego Ore; Writing by Girish Gupta; Editing by Toni Reinhold)

Venezuela prepares world summit to defend new legislative body

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro gestures during a rally against U.S President Donald Trump in Caracas, Venezuela, August 14, 2017. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino

By Diego Oré

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela is preparing an international summit to rally support for an all-powerful lawmaking body, whose recent creation drew widespread foreign condemnation as a power grab by leftist President Nicolas Maduro.

Late last month, and in the face of anti-government street protests, Venezuela elected a 545-member constituent assembly at the behest of Maduro.

On Friday the assembly granted itself lawmaking powers. It was the latest blow to an opposition-controlled congress whose decisions have been nullified by Maduro’s loyalist Supreme Court.

The United States slapped Maduro and a number of Venezuela leaders with sanctions, and U.S. President Donald Trump said military action was among the options he was considering for Venezuela.

“We have drawn up a plan to call a worldwide solidarity with the people of Venezuela, against Donald Trump’s threat and in defense of the constituent assembly,” Maduro said in a television interview on Sunday.

“This world summit will have a combination of preparatory events in various countries around the world, and it will start this week,” Maduro said.

Maduro said help with organizing the summit would come from a regional bloc called The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).

The constituent assembly was elected on July 30 to rewrite the constitution, which Maduro billed as the only solution to bring about peace after more than four months of deadly opposition protests.

The opposition boycotted the election, calling it an affront to democracy. It wants an early presidential election, which it is sure Maduro will lose as his popularity falls along with an economy blighted by triple-digit inflation and acute shortages of food and medicine.

A bloc of countries called the Lima Group, including Peru, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia and seven other nations in the hemisphere, late on Friday joined the United States in criticizing the assembly for “usurping” congress’s powers.

Anti-government marches have stalled since the assembly was inaugurated on Aug. 5. In its first working session, the assembly fired Venezuela’s chief prosecutor Luisa Ortega, who had accused Maduro of human right abuses.

Ortega fled to neighboring Colombia last week. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said on Monday that she was under the protection of his government and would be granted asylum if she requested it.

(Additional reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb in Bogota; Writing by Hugh Bronstein; Editing by W Simon)

Venezuela’s new chief prosecutor vows to jail protest leaders

Delcy Rodriguez (R), president of the National Constituent Assembly, speaks next to Venezuela's chief prosecutor, Tarek William Saab, during a meeting of the Truth Commission in Caracas, Venezuela August 16, 2017. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino

By Hugh Bronstein

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela will hunt down and jail leaders of violent protests that have rocked the country since April, its new top prosecutor said on Thursday, a day before a hate crimes law was expected to be approved despite fears that it will be used to crush dissent.

The new law “against hate and intolerance,” denounced by rights groups as a sham aimed at persecuting the opposition, was set to be approved on Friday by a new legislative superbody elected last month at the behest of President Nicolas Maduro.

Maduro loyalist Delcy Rodriguez, head of the body known as the constituent assembly, said the law would be passed before the weekend. She spoke to the assembly following a speech by chief prosecutor Tarek Saab, appointed by the assembly early this month, who vowed to track down the leaders of protests in which more than 120 people have died since the start of April.

“It will be a point of honor for the public prosecutor’s office to identify who was responsible for each of the hate crimes that occurred in this country,” Saab, Maduro’s ex-human rights ombudsman, shouted during a speech to the assembly.

“We will search the cameras, videos, photographs. We will get images of each one of them to make sure they pay for having killed, for having hurt people and left orphans behind,” he said to a standing ovation by the Socialist Party-dominated assembly.

The international community, however, has pointed at the Maduro government, not opposition demonstrators, when assigning blame for deaths.

Venezuelan security forces and pro-government groups were believed responsible for the deaths of at least 73 demonstrators since April, the United Nations said in an Aug. 8 report.

Abuses of protesters, including torture, were part of “the breakdown of the rule of law” in the oil-rich but economically-ailing nation, the report said.

Those found guilty of expressing hate or intolerance will be punished with up to 25 years in jail, according to the vaguely worded hate crimes bill.

Groups like Human Rights Watch say it would give Maduro’s government carte blanche to take opposition leaders out of circulation ahead of October gubernatorial elections.

The assembly has established a truth commission to investigate opposition candidates to ensure that any who were involved in violent protests would be barred from running for governorships, Rodriguez said.

The opposition, which won control of congress in 2015 only to see its decisions nullified by Maduro’s loyalist Supreme Court, boycotted the July 30 election of the constituent assembly. The body has sweeping powers to re-write Venezuela’s constitution and even give Maduro permission to rule by decree.

(Additional reporting by Deisy Buitrago; Editing by Michael Perry; Editing by Leslie Adler)

U.N. decries excessive force in Venezuela’s crackdown on protests

Pro-government supporters march in Caracas, Venezuela, August 7, 2017. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino

By Brian Ellsworth and Stephanie Nebehay

CARACAS/GENEVA (Reuters) – The United Nations slammed Venezuela on Tuesday for the use of excessive force against anti-government protesters and said security forces and pro-government groups were believed responsible for the deaths of at least 73 demonstrators since April.

Abuses of protesters, including torture, were part of “the breakdown of the rule of law” in the South American OPEC member country,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein said in a statement.

“The responsibility for the human rights violations we are recording lies at the highest levels of the Government,” he said.

There was no immediate reaction from Venezuela’s leftist government to the scathing criticism from the U.N., which said preliminary findings from an investigation conducted in June and July “paint a picture of widespread and systematic use of excessive force and arbitrary detentions against demonstrators in Venezuela.”

But the government has increasingly turned a blind eye to critics overseas as it steps up a crackdown on street protests against President Nicolas Maduro and seeks to consolidate his leftist rule.

As part of that effort, the nation’s pro-government Supreme Court sentenced an opposition mayor to 15 months in jail on Tuesday, saying he had defied an order to ensure that protests in his district of the capital Caracas did not disrupt transit through the area.

In addition to ordering the immediate arrest of Ramon Muchacho of Chacao, a wealthy district that has been the epicenter of four months of protests, the court said he had been fired.

“We are being condemned for doing our job, for guaranteeing the legitimate right to peaceful protest and the right of all Venezuelans to exercise their civil and political rights,” Muchacho said in an email message on Tuesday to his supporters. “The coming hours will be difficult for me.”

Muchacho had not attended court hearings related to his case and location was unknown as of Tuesday afternoon. The order to jail him came just days after the installation of Venezuela’s new constituent assembly, an all-powerful legislative body run by Maduro’s Socialist Party loyalists.

On Saturday the assembly removed dissident chief prosecutor Luisa Ortega from office and ordered her to stand trial. Socialist Party leaders have said Ortega failed to help control opposition protests, which have left more than 125 people dead.

The Supreme Court has issued injunctions against nearly a dozen mayors of opposition municipalities ordering them to prevent protesters from erecting barricades blocking streets and to remove them if they were put in place.

Critics say such cases are a violation of due process rights carried out by a Supreme Court that has ruled almost universally in favor of the Socialist Party.

The court is hearing a similar case against the mayor of another Caracas district, David Smolansky of El Hatillo. Intelligence agents last month arrested Alfredo Ramos, the mayor of the city of Barquisimeto, on accusations that he violated the same order.

Maduro has promised the assembly will bring peace to the country, and help end an acute economic crisis marked by shortages of food and other basic goods, but the opposition says it is aimed at consolidating a dictatorship.

The U.N. said a full report on its finding about Venezuela would be issued at the end of this month. But according to the preliminary findings, Venezuela’s security forces were allegedly responsible for the deaths of at least 46 protesters between April and July 31 while pro-government armed groups known as “colectivos” were linked to 27.

“It is unclear who the perpetrators in the remaining deaths may be,” it said.

“While no official data is available on the number of detentions, reliable estimates suggest that between April 1, when the mass demonstrations began, and 31 July, more than 5,051 people have been arbitrarily detained. More than 1,000 reportedly remain in detention,” the U.N. statement said.

(Editing by W Simon and Tom Brown)

Vatican urges Venezuela’s Maduro to suspend new legislative superbody

Vatican urges Venezuela's Maduro to suspend new legislative superbody

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – The Vatican called on Friday for Venezuela’s government to suspend its new legislative superbody and made a direct appeal to the security forces to avoid excessive force in dealing with opposition protests.

Current initiatives including the constituent assembly “create a climate of tension and conflict and take the future for granted”, the Holy See Secretariat of State said in a statement, calling for the changes to be prevented or suspended.

The spiritual home of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics also urged Venezuela’s security forces to avoid “excessive and disproportionate use of force”. More than 120 people have died in four months of opposition protests.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has defended the newly minted superbody, created as a result of a vote on Sunday, and which countries around the world have criticized as a bid to indefinitely extend his rule.

The Vatican statement called for a negotiated solution following the same guidelines the Vatican set out last year when it brokered talks between the government and the opposition which later broke down.

It also called on Venezuela to respect human rights and the country’s current constitution.

(Reporting by Isla Binnie, editing by Alister Doyle)

Venezuela stands by election count despite fraud allegation

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro (2nd R) speaks during a meeting with members of the Constituent Assembly in Caracas, Venezuela August 2, 2017. The text in the back reads, "Heroic Venezuela". Miraflores Palace/Handout via REUTERS

By Hugh Bronstein and Cassandra Garrison

CARACAS/LONDON (Reuters) – Venezuela’s president rejected accusations on Wednesday that his government inflated turnout figures from its constituent assembly election, branding them part of an effort to stain what he called a clean and transparent vote.

The company that provides the country’s voting machines said that the government’s claim that 8.1 million votes were cast in Sunday’s poll overestimated the tally by least 1 million.

President Nicolas Maduro also criticized the accuracy of a story reported by Reuters that only 3.7 million people had voted by 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, according to internal electoral council documents, compared with the total 8.1 million ballots counted by authorities.

The documents, which break the data down into Venezuela’s 14,515 polling centers, show that 3,720,465 people had voted by 5.30 p.m. Voting ended at 7 p.m. and election experts said doubling the vote in the last hour and a half would be unlikely.

“We stand by our story,” Reuters global communications chief Abbe Serphos said in an email.

Maduro was defiant.

“This election cannot be stained by anyone, because it was a transparent vote, audited before, during and after the ballots were cast,” he told a televised gathering of supporters.

Electronic voting technology firm Smartmatic, which created the voting system that Venezuela has used since 2004, said the turnout figures had been tampered with.

“We know, without any doubt, that the turnout of the recent election for a National Constituent Assembly was manipulated,” said Smartmatic Chief Executive Antonio Mugica in a press briefing in London, without providing details of the company’s methodology.

“We estimate the difference between the actual participation and the one announced by authorities is at least 1 million votes,” he said.

The opposition, which boycotted the vote, has dismissed the official tally as fraudulent. A high turnout was seen as crucial for leftist Maduro to legitimize the election in the face of wide international criticism.

The assembly will have the power to dissolve the opposition-run congress and is expected to sack the country’s chief prosecutor, who has harshly criticized Maduro this year.

Maduro on Wednesday said the newly-minted superbody will also have the power to strip members of congress of their immunity from prosecution. On Tuesday security forces jailed two of Maduro’s leading critics in a fresh blow to the opposition.

Countries around the world have condemned the assembly as a bid to indefinitely extend Maduro’s rule. He is widely criticized for an economic crisis marked by triple-digit inflation and chronic shortages of food and medicine.

OIL WORKERS MARCH

Maduro says the assembly is necessary to give him the powers needed to bring peace to the country after more than four months of opposition protests punctuated by violent clashes between security forces and hooded demonstrators. More than 120 people have been killed since the unrest began in April.

Maduro said delegates of the 545-member assembly will have their first official session on Friday. The opposition called for a new round of protests on Thursday.

Congress has promised to continue holding sessions despite the election of the new assembly. Last month it also named alternate justices to the Supreme Court in defiance of the top court, which has heavily favored Maduro.

Authorities arrested three of those justices, and four others have taken refuge in the residence of the Chilean ambassador in Caracas.

The United States this week called Maduro a dictator, froze his U.S. assets, and barred Americans from doing business with him. Maduro, like his predecessor and mentor, the late Hugo Chavez, regularly laughs off criticism from Washington even though the United States is Venezuela’s top crude importer.

The European Union said it was mulling a “whole range of actions” on Venezuela. But Maduro continues to enjoy public backing from the Venezuela’s military, though soldiers are increasingly weary of the popular backlash against their role in quelling protests.

Oil workers, whom Maduro considers a bedrock of support, rallied in several energy producing regions of the country on Wednesday.

Chanting and carrying the red Socialist Party flag, they denounced sanctions on the leftist president.

“We are here to show our rejection of the intervention of the United States,” one demonstrator said during a televised rally, calling the sanctions “a political show with harmful economic consequences for the people of Venezuela.”

(Writing by Brian Ellsworth, additional reporting by Deisy Buitrago, Corina Pons and Girish Gupta in Caracas.; Editing by W Simon, Tom Brown and Michael Perry)

EU says mulling ‘range of actions’ on Venezuela but sanctions unlikely now

FILE PHOTO: Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro talks to the media during a news conference at Miraflores Palace in Caracas, Venezuela, June 22, 2017. REUTERS/Marco Bello/File Photo

By Robert-Jan Bartunek and Gabriela Baczynska

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union is considering a “whole range of actions” in response to rising tensions in Venezuela, a spokeswoman said on Wednesday after the head of the bloc’s parliament called for targeted sanctions against President Nicolas Maduro.

Venezuela jailed two leading Maduro critics on Tuesday in a fresh blow to the opposition after deadly protests erupted around an election last Sunday, prompting the United States to impose sanctions on the leftist president.

Washington and the EU tend to coordinate their sanctions but the bloc has been divided over how to respond. Spain has been the most vocal in advocating sanctions, while others have so far mostly been cautious.

The European Parliament head, Antonio Tajani, joined the small choir calling to punish Maduro.

In a letter Tajani said that following the “unjustified arrests” of opposition leaders Antonio Ledezma and Leopoldo Lopez, he would like to consider “freezing assets and imposing travel ban to the EU to the members of the Venezuelan government including its President, Nicolas Maduro and its entourage”.

Since the bloc needs unanimity to introduce sanctions, diplomats in Brussels said that did not seem imminent.

Catherine Ray, a spokeswoman for the EU’s executive Commission in Brussels, told a news briefing:

“Consultations with member states are ongoing to ensure an appropriate and coordinated response by the EU. Obviously the whole range of actions is (being) discussed.”

Diplomats explained the bloc was working on joint declaration on Venezuela, where clashes last Sunday marred the election of a new political body with sweeping powers to strengthen the hand of the leftist government.

The EU has suggested it might not recognize the result of the voting.

The diplomats said the declaration would threaten Maduro with more “measures” it can take against what Tajani described as a country “falling into dictatorship”, but would not mention sanctions specifically.

On Monday, the United States government slapped sanctions on Maduro, freezing his assets subject to U.S. jurisdiction, and barring Americans from doing business with him.

(Editing by Pritha Sarkar)