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VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT NICOLAS Maduro claimed victory today in an internationally criticised election for an assembly to rewrite the constitution.
However, the opposition cried fraud and vowed to keep protesting despite a deadly crackdown.
Ten people were killed in a wave of bloodshed that swept Venezuela yesterday as Maduro defied an opposition boycott and international condemnation – including the threat of new US sanctions – to hold elections for a powerful new Constituent Assembly.
Protesters attacked polling stations and barricaded streets around the country, drawing a bloody response from security forces, who opened fire with live ammunition in some cases.
Despite the boycott and the unrest, the head of the National Electoral Council, Tibisay Lucena – one of 13 Maduro allies already slapped with sanctions by US President Donald Trump’s administration – said there had been “extraordinary turnout” of more than eight million voters, 41.5% of the electorate.
Dressed in bright red, his fist clenched and face beaming, Maduro hailed it as a win in a speech to hundreds of cheering supporters in central Caracas.
[image alt="Venezuela Political Crisis" src="http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2017/07/venezuela-political-crisis-17-296x197.jpg" width="296" height="197" credit-source="Ariana%20Cubillos" credit-via="PA%20Images" caption="Anti-government%20demonstrators%20rest%20behind%20a%20barricade%20in%20Caracas%2C%20Venezuela" class="alignnone" /end]
“It is the biggest vote the revolution has ever scored in its 18-year history,” he said, referring to the year his late mentor, Hugo Chavez, came to power.
What the hell do we care what Trump says?
Members of the new assembly will include his wife Cilia Flores, his pugnacious right-hand man Diosdado Cabello, and other staunch allies.
The socialist president is gambling his four-year rule on the 545-member assembly, which will be empowered to dissolve the opposition-controlled congress and rewrite the constitution.
In his speech, he encouraged the assembly to scrap opposition lawmakers’ immunity from prosecution as one of its first acts.
There was blistering international condemnation of the vote, led by Washington.
The constituent assembly aims to “undermine the Venezuelan people’s right to self-determination”, US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement, threatening further “strong and swift” sanctions on Maduro’s government.
More protests loom
The election was also condemned by the EU, Canada and Latin American powers including Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico.
Senior opposition leader Henrique Capriles called on Venezuelans to continue defying the deeply unpopular Maduro with new protests against the election and the “massacre” he said accompanied it.
[image alt="Crisis in Venezuela" src="http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2017/07/crisis-in-venezuela-3-296x197.jpg" width="296" height="197" credit-source="Manaure%20Quintero" credit-via="PA%20Images" caption="Police%20on%20motorcycles%20from%20the%20national%20guard%20patrol%20in%20Caracas" class="alignnone" /end]
“We do not recognize this fraudulent process,” he said, calling for nationwide marches today and a mass protest in Caracas on Wednesday, the day the new assembly is due to be installed.
Maduro has banned protests over the vote, threatening prison terms of up to 10 years.
Ten dead
Prosecutors said 10 people were killed in violence around the vote, bringing the death toll in four months of protests to more than 120 people.
Those killed included a candidate for the new assembly, a regional opposition leader, two teenage protesters and a soldier in the western state of Tachira, which saw some of the worst violence.
[image alt="Venezuela Political Crisis" src="http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2017/07/venezuela-political-crisis-16-296x202.jpg" width="296" height="202" credit-source="Ariana%20Cubillos" credit-via="PA%20Images" caption="Anti-government%20demonstrators%20wait%20for%20Venezuelan%20Bolivarian%20National%20Guards" class="alignnone" /end]
In eastern Caracas, seven police were wounded when an improvised explosive targeted their motorcycle convoy.
National guard troops used armoured vehicles, rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse protesters blocking roads in the capital and other cities.
World protests
According to polling firm Datanalisis, more than 70% of Venezuelans oppose the idea of the new assembly – and 80% reject Maduro, whose term is meant to end in 2019.
“The people are not going to give up the streets until this awful government goes,” protester Carlos Zambrano (54) told AFP in western Caracas.
Venezuelans also protested in Miami, Madrid and various Latin American cities.
The number of Venezuelans living abroad has soared as the once-booming oil producer has descended into a devastating economic crisis marked by shortages, runaway inflation, riots and looting.
[image alt="Spain Venezuela Political Crisis" src="http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2017/07/spain-venezuela-political-crisis-3-296x197.jpg" width="296" height="197" credit-source="Paul%20White" credit-via="PA%20Images" caption="Protest%20against%20the%20Venezuelan%20government%20in%20Madrid%2C%20Spain" class="alignnone" /end]
‘A sham’
The US envoy to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, condemned the vote as a “sham” – a word also used by Britain’s junior foreign minister, Alan Duncan, and many experts.
“The vote means the end of any trace of democratic rule. Maduro’s blatant power grab removes any ambiguity about whether Venezuela is a democracy,” said Michael Shifter, head of the Inter-American Dialogue research centre.
Latin America specialist Phil Gunson, a senior analyst at Crisis Group, called the vote “the definitive break with what remains of representative democracy in Venezuela”.
“It will accelerate the longer-term trend towards economic, social and political collapse unless those in a position to change course do so, and begin to negotiate a restoration of democracy and economic viability,” he said.
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Maybe they could get rid the tax discs as well and use the same technology. Actually while they are at it scrap motor tax and put 1c on each litre of fuel that way everybody pays no motor tax dodging anymore and if your car I’d genuinely off the road you will not have to go a tell a guard.
Nothing like using a crisis for a big brother power grab.. Never let a good crisis go to waste as the old saying goes.
It makes more sense to git rid in tax disks. They are only checked by the Garda. Insurance disks are checked by people involved in an accident too.
The average motorist may use 40 /50 ltrs per week . 50 cent per week I think you would see an increase of at least 10 cent per ltr for it to work. Not to bad if you use 50 ltr pw but I use 150ltr pw !! In a car not van or truck. Should I pay up to €800 per year on Tax
Lot of people have gotten rid of tax discs anyway…simply can’t afford them.
@Lee Jones: Good idea but as it wouldn’t have a guaranteed revenue they’ll never go for it. At least they can have an almost flawless projection on the amount of registered cars with the disc. Anything that is of benefit to you usually doesn’t happen.
@Barry Davidson: €710 road tax for a 00 e class,madness.
They abolished discs in the U.K. a few years ago. Automatic plate recognition by DVLA cars and police – not paid/up to date means you can’t get an MOT test and no insurance means you can’t Tax your car etc. All 3 systems can be checked (MOT/tax/insurance).
Australian system works well. Around $700 per year registration which covers tax and third party insurance. If you want to get fully comp you arrange it yourself.
But that would make sense. Sense doesn’t work in Ireland, greed does.
@guru that’s about €1000 in todays money. Quite expensive. Halve the price and you got a deal.
I just looked up the Garda.ie website and it says that “An Garda Síochána uses Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR)……the roll out of ANPR in An Garda Síochána was completed in 2010. Am I missing something as if this is true then simply it should only need a connection to the Insurance database. Is there any joined up thinking between the Garda, the Minister and the insurance industry?
I’m sure whatever happens it’s going to cost tens of millions.
And probably can’t handle muddy reg plates.
@Frank, I got a fixed penalty notice for a mondeo breaking the speed limit in Tuam, yet I’ve never driven in Tuam, and don’t have a mondeo. The mondeo in question had 1 number different to my motorbike and the camera read in incorrectly. Stupid computer!
How is the government spending a fortune on a computer system to stop you receiving an insurance disc going to save you money on insurance premiums? In order to monitor driver patterns they’d have to be cameras on every road recording everything you do. Sounds like a sales pitch for their mates
They follow driving patterns by the insurance company’s putting a gps tracker in your car. The data will of course be spun in a way that in the long run we will end up paying the same as what we are now (if not more)
Buy into the UK system. No insurance, tax or NCT discs used in the U.K. In addition you have valid insurance in place before you can tax a vehicle.
Anpr is already fitted in Garda cars and at toll booths.
They don’t need to put cameras everywhere, it just means the Garda can check the cars insurance/tax/nct details without stopping you. They already do this for tax anyway! The computer system (pulse) is already there too so cost would be minimal.
I wouldn’t like to have gps fitted to my car though, that’s a step in the wrong direction.
The real agenda is fraud. When something becomes so expensive, people are forced into fraudulent methods of avoiding spiralling costs.
Printing discs and driving without insurance going up, hence insurance premiums going up.
There are thousands of untaxed cars on our roads. A fuel levy instead of road tax would ensure that most if not all of the dodgers have to pay up and also the more you drive the more you pay as you use the roads more often.
John do you actually think you are the first person to think of that ?
@Steven Cee: Absolutely not. I am sure it was thought about by hundreds of people over the years. The trouble is the people who can do something about it are not thinking at all.
Will ANPR have the same gut feel or intuition that a guard has that something just not right and requires further investigation when stopping someone at a checkpoint. This technology is further removing the average guard from the beat and this to me is not a good thing.
Just wait, number plate cloning will be the next problem.
Already a thing of the past for a lot of people who don’t bother with insurance
Untaxed and uninsured cars should be seized and crushed no matter who is driving them .
@William Mcgee: With the occupants still in the vehicle???
The insurance companies will only produce 30percent of the information available… and out goverment accept this. Give me a break… Noonan told the insurance companies to increase the premiems when ever they can . He said this3 years ago
How people can still get a away with not paying road tax and insurance in the age of smartphones etc is laughable. Its the uninsured people on the road that worry me the most
Paper insurance disks are great. You can easily check when your tax and insurance is up with a quick glance. I think paper disks should stay.
1st paragraph 2nd line should be ‘be’ not ‘me’
@JohnMcGuinness : It was your Fianna Fail party introduced the 2-Tier Motor Tax system .. the most regressive in the EU.
placing high tax burden on the most vulnerable low paid in Irish society. UK MPs refused to pass this odious law but you did.
https://www.change.org/p/unfair-car-tax-law
read what 4000 comments have to say about it https://www.change.org/p/unfair-car-tax-law/c
ANPR great system for catching criminals, has it reduced premiums in England? No! The fact is the insurance companies in Ireland have been un regulated like the banks and have got out of control, greed & profit raises its ugly head again. Simple system you don’t have an accident premium drops have an accident premium goes up. There must be an independent insurance regulator to keep an on the insurance company’s and cost of premiums
have your say