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Candidate’s Death Marks Heated Vote in Venezuela Violence, Including a Candidate’s Death, Mars Vote in Venezuela
(about 3 hours later)
A vote to restructure Venezuela’s government to give far more power to its leftist president was marked by tension on Sunday, as a candidate for the political body that would rewrite the Constitution was reported to be killed and many Venezuelans stayed away from the polls. BOGOTÁ, Colombia — A vote to pick the people who will restructure Venezuela’s government was marred by violence on Sunday as one candidate was killed in his home the night before, an explosion was set off on a busy street and at least eight people died in clashes between protesters and the police.
Prosecutors said on Sunday that they were investigating the death of José Félix Pineda, a 39-year-old lawyer running for the constituent assembly, the group charged with overhauling the country’s governing laws. An armed group broke into his home in the city of Ciudad Bolívar and shot him dead there, they said. President Nicolás Maduro had ordered a rewriting of Venezuela’s Constitution, its governing charter. Sunday’s election was simply to pick the members of the constituent assembly that will carry it out. Nearly all candidates were politicians close to Mr. Maduro, presumably assuring that the outcome would leave his leftist movement with complete control of the country once the assembly takes charge.
While the motive for the killing had not been determined, the news added to anxiety in Venezuela, where the government has banned protests by the opposition and journalists from entering polling places to observe the vote. “I said rain, thunder or lightning, the 30th of July was going to come,” the president said in a shaky video made from his vehicle after he cast his ballot.
“I said rain, thunder or lightning, the 30th of July was going to come,” President Nicolás Maduro said, referring to the election, in a recording from his vehicle after casting his ballot. But the powers of the new assembly members will be so vast that they could possibly remove Mr. Maduro from office, some analysts noted, ending a presidency that has been deeply unpopular, even among many leftists.
The vote, ordered by Mr. Maduro, has raised fears throughout Venezuela that it could jeopardize the country’s democracy, which has been weakened by successive actions by Mr. Maduro and his loyalists. Many Venezuelans decided not to vote, as evidenced by short or no lines at polling places, dealing a serious blow to the popular legitimacy of Mr. Maduro’s effort.
The constituent assembly, which will have the power to rewrite the country’s Constitution and reshuffle — or dismantle — any branch of government seen as disloyal, is expected to grant virtually unlimited authority to Venezuela’s leftists. Prosecutors said on Sunday that they were investigating the death of José Félix Pineda, a 39-year-old lawyer running for the constituent assembly. An armed group broke into Mr. Pineda’s home in the city of Ciudad Bolívar on Saturday night and shot him dead there, they said.
Voters on Sunday could not reject the assembly’s creation, although some polls have shown that large majorities oppose it. All they could do was choose the assembly’s delegates from a list of candidates who are stalwarts of Mr. Maduro’s political movement. Hours later, a large explosion rocked a middle-class neighborhood in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, injuring seven police officers on patrol there. Video circulated on social media showed the uniformed officers, all on motorcycles, riding into a fireball that had just erupted in front of them.
The list of delegates includes powerful members of the president’s political movement, including his wife, Cilia Flores, and Diosdado Cabello, a leader in the ruling Socialist Party who was part of a failed coup attempt in the 1990s. Nearby residents applauded as the security forces threw tear gas at them.
“This is an existential threat to Venezuelan democracy,” David Smilde, an analyst at the Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights advocacy group, said last week. The unrest was the latest after three months of protests that have left more than 110 people dead, raising fears that Mr. Maduro’s efforts to consolidate power could steer the country toward deeper civil conflict.
The vote follows a series of power grabs by Mr. Maduro. The government took strong precautions to control Sunday’s vote. It outlawed protests in the days before and after, vowing tough sentences for those who disobeyed. And it barred many news outlets, including The New York Times, from entering polling stations to interview voters.
First, the Supreme Court was packed with the president’s loyalists, and several opposition lawmakers were blocked from taking their seats. Then, judges overturned laws that the president opposed, and elections for governors around the country were suddenly suspended. Those interviewed outside said they hoped the government would use the new powers of the constituent assembly to crush the opposition, whose control of the legislature has already been weakened this year by the courts, which are aligned with the Maduro government.
Next, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of dissolving the legislature entirely, but that decision was rescinded after an enormous outcry in Venezuela and abroad. “The constituent assembly will be the power,” said Javier Granadillo, a 46-year-old mechanic who voted in Caracas and blamed the opposition for the country’s current crisis. “If any part of the government doesn’t do its job, they will be dissolved.”
Infuriated by Mr. Maduro’s government, the opposition has mobilized more than three months of street protests. It has crippled cities with general strikes, rallies and looting. More than 110 people have been killed, many in clashes between the state and armed protesters. Few know how protesters will respond to the newly elected constituent assembly or its actions. Outside the fading public school building where he cast his ballot, Mr. Granadillo was joined on a sunny morning by several like-minded voters as some 20 people waited in line.
However, some polls leading up to Sunday’s voting showed that large majorities of Venezuelans did not think their country needed a new Constitution.
This month, Venezuelans issued a stinging rebuke to Mr. Maduro by turning out in droves during a symbolic vote held by the opposition. More than seven million votes were cast, opposition leaders said, with 98 percent against rewriting the Constitution.
The overhaul is also unpopular among some Latin American governments, with Colombia, Peru, Argentina and Panama indicating they would not accept the outcome.
President Trump threatened “swift economic actions” from the United States, which buys nearly half of Venezuela’s major export, oil, if Mr. Maduro went through with Sunday’s vote. Mr. Trump also praised the “strong, courageous actions” of the measure’s opposition.
But the outside encouragement seemed to do little to strengthen the opposition on Sunday. Leaders canceled a rally scheduled in the afternoon because of the clashes rocking the country. A demonstration on Friday, billed as a last stand against the vote, was poorly attended.
Instead, opposition members took to their social media accounts to drum up support.
“Today’s journey has been one of abstention and repression, with dead and wounded,” wrote Henrique Capriles, the opposition governor of the state of Miranda who narrowly lost to Mr. Maduro in 2013’s presidential election and was banned this year from running again. “A monumental failure!”
As the day wore on, government security forces used water cannons, rubber bullets and batons against opposition protesters, just as they have for the last three months.
Among those killed on Sunday were two boys, ages 13 and 17, who were shot dead during protests in the western state of Táchira; a police officer shot dead in front of a school; and a 43-year-old man killed in the central city of Barquisimeto in Lara State, when a bullet pierced his head, according to the state prosecutor’s office.
The focus of many voters in Caracas seemed to be on food, not politics. Venezuela remains in an economic tailspin, causing severe shortages of food and medicine.
“When the opposition got the National Assembly they said there would be food and now it’s even worse,” said Juan Carlos Hernández, 43, a government employee who said he supported Mr. Maduro.
“The first thing I’m asking of the constitutional assembly is that they start putting out food,” he said, “because if they don’t, the people are going to get angry.”