Opposition leaders on Monday revealed plans to further resist Maduro on the heels of a Sunday symbolic referendum against a plan by Maduro to rewrite the constitution.
“We call on the whole country to launch a 24-hour national strike this Thursday, a massive, non-violent protest,” Freddy Guevara, an opposition leader and the vice-president of Venezuela’s National Assembly, said.
The strike would aim “to pressure the government and to prepare for the final steps, which will be next week, to confront this fraud... and to restore constitutional order,” he said, in reference to the constitutional rewrite bid.
But it was not clear how many Venezuelans would heed the call.
The opposition also plans to name new members to the government-dominated Supreme Court and take steps to form an alternative “government of national unity,” raising the possibility of a parallel state structure.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has called on Maduro to heed the results of the Sunday symbolic plebiscite, which had been boycotted by government supporter.
The unofficial referendum came two week before an official vote to create a legislative assembly that would have rewrite Venezuela’s 1999 constitution.
“The United States will not stand by as Venezuela crumbles,” Trump said in a statement on Monday. “If the Maduro regime imposes its Constituent Assembly on July 30, the United States will take strong and swift economic actions,” he said, referring to the date of the elections for the government-planned Assembly.
Maduro, however, vowed to press ahead with the vote, saying he “won’t be intimidated.”
Venezuela’s opposition said more than seven million people voted in the symbolic vote, which was dismissed by the president as unconstitutional.
source: presstv