Venezuela Crisis: Maduro Announces State of Emergency

Local Editor

As Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro swept into new emergency powers decreed this week, protests are scheduled in the Latin American country.

The demonstrations mark the strongest challenge yet to Maduro's declaration of a state of emergency.

Opposition-led marches in the capital Caracas and other major cities were to demand that authorities accept a recall referendum to determine Maduro's fate.

The 53-year-old president on Tuesday dismissed the push against him as "not viable," and said a petition with 1.8 signatures the recall demand is based on was riddled with "fraud."

The 60-day state of emergency was imposed beginning Monday to tackle what Maduro said were threats to domestic and external security, as well as food and energy shortages.

Many of the measures rely on Venezuela's army and police being deployed to enforce them.

The opposition-controlled congress late Tuesday rejected the decree in a vote, saying it undermined democracy. But the Supreme Court may overrule that, as it has with other congressional decisions.

Maduro has accused Washington of having "imperial" designs on Venezuela, and said that a US AWACS surveillance plane had twice violated his country's airspace last week.

He has ordered military exercises for Saturday.

Despite his decree, there have so far been no signs of increased military presence in the streets.

But Wednesday's demonstrations could face a robust police deployment. A Caracas march last week, before the emergency decree, was halted in its tracks by riot police firing tear gas.

On Wednesday, ahead of the main march in Caracas, 14 metro stations in the central district of the capital where a Maduro ally is mayor, were closed for "operational reasons."

That created major travel disruption in the congested city -- and made it difficult for protesters to get to their rallying point, forcing them to take packed commuter buses.

Opposition leader Henrique Capriles has urged the public to defy the state of emergency and called on the army to decide whether it sides "with the constitution or with Maduro."

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team