President vows to oppose newly elected assembly

The Venezuelan bishops have implored the government and the army to accept the defeat of the ruling party in mid-term parliamentary elections last month, writes Isabel de Bertodano.

President Nicolás Maduro has said he will not allow “the counter-revolutionary right” to take over the running of the national assembly. “We will not let it,” he declared.

In a statement published just before Christmas the bishops warned the government: “You cannot hinder [the installation of the new assembly], much less prevent it.” They appealed for policies which “attend to the most needy to avoid the risk of a backlash from a population suffering shortages, insecurity and government inefficiency, evils we have experienced for many years”.

At the election a coalition of opposition parties won a two-thirds majority in the national assembly.