+ A
A -
REUTERS
CARACAS
CLASHES between Venezuelan security forces and demonstrators have killed five people during the latest opposition-led strike to protest an election on Sunday that critics contend will mark the end of democracy in the oil-rich country.
As Venezuela's crisis deepened, Colombian airline Avianca on Thursday canceled its operations in the country and the US State Department said it was ordering family members of US employees at its embassy in Caracas to leave ahead of the vote.
The controversial Constituent Assembly election is scheduled for July 30.
Critics of President Nicolas Maduro were planning to pile more pressure on the unpopular leftist leader by holding a major protest dubbed 'The takeover of Venezuela'on Friday.
"If yesterday and today the streets were empty, tomorrow we must take over all of Venezuela,"said opposition lawmaker Freddy Guevara, referring to a two-day anti-government strike that started on Wednesday.
Interior Minister Nestor Reverol warned that protests were banned from Friday to Tuesday, leaving open the likelihood of more violence in volatile Venezuela. Many Venezuelans are nervous and have been stocking up on food and staying home.
On Thursday, the US State Department also authorized the voluntary departure of US government employees at its embassy in Caracas.
President Donald Trump has warned that his administration could impose economic sanctions on Venezuela if Maduro goes ahead with the vote to create a legislative superbody known as the Constituent Assembly.
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.
At least 108 people have died in anti-government unrest convulsing Venezuela since April, when the opposition launched protests demanding free and fair elections to end nearly two decades of socialist rule.
Many streets remained barricaded and deserted on Thursday as a nationwide work stoppage entered its second day.
Plenty of rural areas and working-class urban neighborhoods were bustling, however, and the strike appeared less massively supported than a one-day shutdown last week.
With Venezuela already brimming with shuttered stores and factories, amid a blistering four-year recession, the effectiveness of any strike can be hard to gauge. Many Venezuelans live hand-to-mouth and say they must keep working.
In Barinas, home state of former Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, only about a third of businesses were closed according to a Reuters witness, as opposed to the opposition's formal estimate of 92 percent participation nationally.
"I am opposed to the government and I agree we must do everything we can to get out of this mess, but I depend on my work. If I don't work, my family does not eat,"said Ramon Alvarez, a 45-year-old barber at his shop in Barinas.
