Venezuela dictator Maduro takes over legislature in move condemned by Pompeo
by Jordan Hilger, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro took over his country’s National Assembly Sunday, consolidating his power by co-opting the legislature largely considered the South American nation’s last democratic institution.
Pro-Maduro forces restrained opposition leader Juan Guaido, who is supported by the US, when he tried to enter the legislature by climbing a fence to stand for his re-election as assembly leader, his followers later swearing him in at an opposition newspaper office.
“For months, corrupt regime officials have engaged in an unlawful, violent, and despicable campaign of arrests, intimidation, and bribery to destroy the last democratic institution in Venezuela, the National Assembly, and to prevent elected members of the National Assembly from casting their votes freely and in accordance with the views of their constituents,” US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said.
Thousands of people took to the streets behind Guaido and a contingent of the military when they called for an uprising against Maduro in April, leading to violent street clashes that killed four people and saw Maduro’s army drive a military vehicle into a crowd of people.