A national strike has gripped Venezuela, building tension ahead of a controversial vote to elect a special assembly intended to rewrite the country’s constitution.
Opponents of President Nicolas Maduro are calling on Venezuelans to stay at home and barricade streets nationwide during a two-day strike that began at 6 a.m. Wednesday.
“The call we’ve made for the coming days will require each of you to ask yourselves what role you have to play in Venezuela’s rescue,” said Freddy Guevara, opposition leader and vice president of the National Assembly.
The goal is for Maduro to abandon his plans of rewriting the nation’s Constitution, opposition leaders said at a news conference.
But Maduro has said that rewriting the Constitution is needed to restore order, apply justice and reestablish peace in Venezuela.
For months, violence has been spiraling out of control as people struggle with a shortage of medicine and food.
In late March, the Venezuelan Supreme Court dissolved the Parliament and transferred all legislative powers to itself.
The opposition claimed Maduro was creating a dictatorship. The decision was reversed three days later, but it triggered a series of bloody street protests that have lasted for months.
Since April, 103 people have been killed in Venezuela’s political unrest, a source in the the attorney general’s office told CNN.
Desolate streets
The normally bustling streets of Caracas were silent Wednesday morning as the strike paralyzed the capital.
“No one wants to keep living under Maduro’s regime,” tweeted Richard Blanco, a National Assembly member representing Caracas.
Protesters from across the country participated in the strike.
More than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) away from Caracas, in the Great Savanna region, indigenous people blocked a road in the village of Kumarakapay.
“Pemon indigenous people from the Great Savanna on 48-hour strike Kumarakapay,” tweeted Americo De Grazia, another member of the National Assembly.
Rallying support on both sides
Wednesday’s strike is not the first of its kind in Venezuela.
Last week, millions voted in a nonbinding referendum to reject Maduro’s controversial plan but the government condemned the poll as illegal.
The decision was followed by a 24-hour strike that turned violent.
Now, both sides are rallying support for ahead of the July 30 vote.
Hours before the strike began, opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez urged Venezuelans to keep up protests in a 15-minute video posted online.
Lopez called Maduro and his supporters a “very clear threat,” saying their goal is to undermine democracy and achieve the “absolute submission of the Venezuelan people.”
Lopez, the former mayor of a Caracas district with ambitions for the presidency, was released from prison to house arrest earlier this month. He had been detained since early 2014 over accusations of inciting anti-government protests.
