Venezuela to install disputed new assembly

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Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro is to install the country's controversial new assembly on Friday, while his political foes are preparing to launch another showdown with massive protests.

"The constituent assembly has made preparations for its big day tomorrow to take power. I have been informed that all is perfectly prepared," Maduro said in a television broadcast Thursday.

"The constituent assembly will be the body to discuss and decide legislative issues once it has been installed," added Maduro, calling for "peace, calmness, joy and serenity."

Handout picture released by the Venezuelan presidency showing President Nicolas Maduro (C) talking during a meeting with constitutionalists in Caracas on August 2, 2017. /AFP Photo‍

The installation ceremony is scheduled at 11 a.m. local time (1500 GMT) on Friday. The newly-elected National Constituent Assembly (ANC) will sit in the Federal Legislative Palace in Caracas, where the opposition-controlled legislature is located.

Pressure from home

People from home and abroad have accused Maduro of trampling on democracy with his assembly, as the body is endowed with unlimited powers to dissolve the National Assembly, amend laws and rewrite the 1999 constitution.

Maduro on Monday claimed victory in the controversial assembly vote which represented a turnout of 41.53 percent of the country's total eligible voters. However, a company running the polling said on Wednesday that the turnout figures were manipulated.

Attorney General Luisa Ortega's office said on Twitter that two state prosecutors had filed a court case to block Friday's inauguration, "based on suspected crimes committed" during the election. She said on Wednesday that she had ordered an investigation into "scandalous" electoral fraud.

Venezuela's Attorney General Luisa Ortega speaks during a press conference in Caracas, on July 31, 2017. /AFP Photo

The inaugural session of the 545-member assembly, which included Maduro's wife and son, will take place under high tension as the opposition has called a mass protest in the capital. According to AFP, it has raised fears of violence that could add to a death toll of more than 125 over the past four months.

Pressure from abroad

Sunday's vote has brought Venezuela's crisis to a boiling point, bringing international condemnations.

People loot a supermarket in Maracay, Aragua state, Venezuela on June 27, 2017. /AFP Photo

The US State Department said on Thursday that the US will not recognize Venezuela's ANC tasked to amend the Constitution.

"We are evaluating all our policy options to what we can do to create a change of conditions, where either Maduro decides he does not have a future and wants to leave on his own accord, or we can return the government processes back to the constitution," the department said in a statement.

After being hit with US economic sanctions and called a dictator by US President Donald Trump, Maduro said defiantly that he was standing up to what he called imperialism.

The Venezuelan leader also slammed Mexico, Chile and Peru as American vassals for saying they would not recognize the new assembly.

The European Union, Colombia and Argentina also made similar voices, though Maduro did have support from Russia, Cuba, Bolivia and Nicaragua.

What happens next in Venezuela after the controversial vote?

The election that split Venezuela down the middle