UN Appeals For Calm In Venezuela

appealed for calm ahead of Sunday’s elections for the new Constituent Assembly, urging the Venezuelan government of President Nicolas Maduro must allow peaceful protests and freedom of expression.

The Constituent Assembly would have power to rewrite the constitution and shut down the existing opposition-led legislature, which the opposition maintains would cement dictatorship in Venezuela.

The U.S. government ordered family members of employees at its embassy in Venezuela to leave on Thursday as a political crisis deepened ahead of a vote critics contend will end democracy in the oil-rich country.

According to UN human rights spokeswoman Liz Throssell, the wishes of the Venezuelan people to participate or not in this election need to be respected.

“No one should be obliged to vote, while those willing to take part should be able to do so freely.

“We hope that the poll scheduled for Sunday, if it goes ahead, will proceed peacefully and in full respect of human rights,’’ Throssell told a briefing.

100 people have died in anti-government unrest convulsing Venezuela since April, when the opposition launched protests demanding conventional elections to end nearly two decades of socialist rule.

Many streets remained barricaded and deserted on Thursday during the second day of a nationwide work stoppage.

Plenty of rural areas and working-class urban neighborhoods were bustling, however, and the strike appeared less massively supported than a one-day shutdown on July 22.