The authoritarian Socialist-led Venezuelan regime held the
elections a week ago for a new assembly, a third of which are members appointed by the
government among constituencies of the ruling party, as a first step toward the
establishment of a full dictatorship.
The assembly replaces the current democratically-elected Congress, the
large majority of which are members of the opposition.
Because Venezuela ’s ruling Socialists do
not tolerate freedoms and fully permit free and fair elections, the opposition
boycotted the vote. The turnout was well
less than 50% of the electorate. Over
one hundred Venezuelans have been killed in protests over the last few weeks.
The new Venezuelan assembly, whose
members will be entirely from the ruling party, will be empowered to write a
new constitution that would grant even more dictatorial powers to the
authoritarian president. Without a
timeline for the adoption of the constitution, elections scheduled for next year,
which the Socialists were expected to lose, would be delayed indefinitely.
Opposition leaders were arrested
after the vote and the Venezuelan attorney general removed from office. The ruling Socialists had thwarted effective
lawmaking by the Congress, including any liberalization and even the release of
political prisoners.
In addition to the opposition, the
Catholic Church, Latin American leaders and international organizations, others
members of the international community and human rights organizations have
condemned the Venezuelan Socialist regime’s abandonment of representative
government and imposition of tyranny.
The new assembly will lack international recognition, except from a
handful of allies among rogue states, like Communist Cuba. The United
States , which had already imposed increased sanctions on Venezuela , and
others in the international community, must consider swiftly implementing
effective measures to prevent the total loss of liberty in the once-free,
representative, peaceful and prosperous South American state.
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