VENEZUELA: Maduro Establishes Constituent Assembly Amid Global Criticism

(RTTNews) - The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, installed the National Constituent Assembly elected last week in spite of criticism from the international community and protests from the opposition.

The beginning of the Assembly's works, which was originally scheduled for Thursday, was postponed by Maduro's decision after a controversy over an alleged electoral "fraud" identified by the Prosecutor's Office and by the company responsible for counting Sunday's votes.

According to the Venezuelan News Agency, the 545 elected members of the assembly will begin to "define the new political, economic, social and cultural bases that will contribute to deepening the republican model of social justice developed in the country since 1999."

Former Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez was elected President of the Constituent Assembly.

The Constituent Assembly was Maduro's answer to growing popular dissatisfaction with his government. Support for the president is diminishing amid a deep economic recession in the country, making room for opposition parties, which won the legislative election in 2015 and since then have the majority of the seats in the Venezuelan Congress.

Critics of Maduro say that he is attempting to increase his powers by changing the current Constitution, which is in place since his predecessor, Hugo Chávez, took office.

According to the government, more than eight million Venezuelans participated in Sunday's National Constituent Assembly (ANC) vote, or 41% of the Venezuelans able to vote. The company who provided the vote counting system, however, said that the government inflated the total turnout by at least one million people.

More than ten countries of the region, among them Argentina, Colombia, and Peru, said that would not recognize the electoral results. The United States and the European Union called the vote "illegal."

Even the Holy See reiterated its concern about the deepening of the crisis in Venezuela and asked the Latin American country's government to suspend the start of the National Constituent Assembly works.

"Rather than favoring reconciliation and peace, [the Constituent] fosters a climate of tension and confrontation," the Vatican's Secretary of State said in a statement.