Reuters - Venezuela's
opposition exhorted President Nicolas Maduro on Thursday to set an election and
start releasing jailed activists within days, while students opposed to
Vatican-led talks protested in the streets.
The opposition
coalition escalated protests and drew hundreds of thousands into the streets
when authorities quashed its drive for a referendum against Maduro last month.
But it
suspended street actions out of respect for talks with the government that
began at the weekend mediated by a Papal envoy.
However, with
one major party dissenting and many supporters fearful Maduro is playing for
time, opposition leaders say they will wait until Nov. 11 before possibly
quitting talks and returning to street tactics if demands are ignored.
Carlos Ocariz,
an opposition mayor speaking at a news conference on behalf of the coalition,
reiterated their first demand was the revival of the referendum or a moving
forward of presidential elections to the first quarter of 2017.
The next
presidential vote is currently set for late 2018.
"Our
second goal is the freedom of all political prisoners in Venezuela,"
Ocariz said, referring to what the opposition estimate are around 100 Maduro
critics unfairly imprisoned.
The coalition
also wants to overturn Supreme Court rulings that have annulled the
opposition-led National Assembly and to name a new board to the national
election council, which it accuses of favoring Maduro.
The
53-year-old socialist leader won election to replace his late mentor Hugo
Chavez in 2013, but has seen his popularity plummet to just over 20 percent
amid an unprecedented economic crisis in the OPEC nation of 30 million people.
There is no
indication Maduro will agree to any of the coalition's big demands, and indeed
some officials have mocked the deadline.
Arguing that
talks will not work with a government they consider a dictatorship, hundreds of
students marched in Caracas and elsewhere on Thursday.
"There
can't be dialogue when you have political prisoners, when they deny us an
election and there is hunger," said Fernando Marquez, 23, among about 150
students who faced off with police in the restive western city of San
Cristobal.
Security
forces fired tear gas to stop them advancing past barriers.
During 17
years of socialist rule in Venezuela, the government and opposition have
repeatedly held dialogues when tensions on the street have boiled over. But all
of them have quickly degenerated back into the acrimonious insults that
characterize modern-day Venezuelan politics.
Reuters
Follow Solenzo Blog on
0 Comments