The Guardian: Venezuela Plan to Rewrite Constitution Branded a Coup by Former Regional Allies

Venezuela has ample oil reserves and other natural resources, but its citizens must contend with unemployment, inflation, corruption and negative growth. Foreign investors and neighboring states are alarmed as protests and riots over food shortages overwhelm the country. The opposition won control of the national assembly by a large margin in 2015, but President Nicholás Maduro plans to revise the constitution to delay the presidential election. “Opposition leaders have repeated concerns that Venezuela is slipping towards a dictatorship, arguing that the new body would be packed with cronies of the president and his supporters,” report Jonathan Watts and Virginia López for the Guardian. “How the new constitutional assembly will be selected remains unclear. In announcing the presidential decree, Maduro suggested some members would be elected, while others might be chosen from social organisations.” Maduro won election in the country of 30 million by a narrow margin in 2013 and continued populist and nationalist policies of his predecessor, Hugo Chavez, which eroded the economy. – YaleGlobal