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AFP
CARACAS
VENEZUELAN President Nicolas Maduro's call for a new constitution to quell a deadly political crisis inflamed his opponents, who blocked roads and banged pots on Tuesday to demand elections.
Maduro said his move was necessary to fend off what he says is an attempted foreign-backed"coup"against him.
His opponents say it further weakens the chances of holding a vote to remove Maduro, whom they blame for an economic crisis that has sparked food shortages and rioting.
Analysts said the socialist president was playing for time and looking to delay presidential elections due next year.
"This escalates the crisis to unprecedented levels. It increases tensions,"said Diego Moya-Ocampos, a Venezuelan analyst at London-based consultancy IHS Markit Country Risk.
"If protests do get out of hand it opens the door for Maduro's powerful ally, the armed forces, to demand the constitution be respected or take over power to supervise a transition."
The opposition is demanding early elections to replace the socialist president.
Maduro instead said he was invoking his power to create a 500-member"constituent assembly"to rewrite the constitution.
That would cut out other political parties and the opposition-controlled Congress.
Maduro regularly portrays Venezuela as the victim of a US-led capitalist conspiracy.
The opposition complained that the body drafting the new charter would not be the result of a popular election.
Maduro said it would be composed of workers and farmers, constituencies that form his party's traditional base of support.
It will be"a citizen's constituent body, not from political parties -- a people's constituent body,"he said.
He said the National Electoral Council would start work on the process on Tuesday.
Maduro was elected in 2013 to succeed his late mentor Hugo Chavez.
