CARACAS, Venezuela _ Venezuela appears set to hold presidential elections before the end of April, a plan abruptly announced after the European Union blacklisted seven key allies of President Nicolas Maduro.
Diosdado Cabello, second in command of the ruling socialist party and among those sanctioned, on Tuesday announced the vote in the South America nation's all-powerful constituent assembly. Cabello told members that an election would show commitment to a vibrant democracy by a government that has been accused of electoral abuses and human rights violations.
"If they attack us, it's because we're on the right path," Cabello, who is the assembly's vice president, said to raucous applause. "The world wants to apply sanctions; we want elections."
Foreign-exchange controls, the collapse of the oil-based economy, price caps and inflation that soared above 2,300 percent last year have made the formerly prosperous OPEC nation a landscape of crime, hunger and want. As the situation worsens, the government has increasingly resorted to repression to fend off opponents in the streets and at the polls.
The sanctions, endorsed Monday by foreign ministers from the 28-nation European Union, include a travel ban and an asset freeze. The punishment was meant to further isolate Venezuela after numerous accusations of wrongdoing last year. The U.S. has slapped sanctions on more than a dozen top government officials _ including Maduro himself _ after the regime installed the assembly to rewrite the constitution and bypass the national legislature.
The assembly, which is composed entirely of socialist party loyalists, swiftly approved the vote Tuesday. An electoral commission stacked with regime supporters is expected to provide the final go-ahead.
The short time before the vote will wrong-foot a divided opposition, said Carlos Romero, a political analyst at the Central University of Venezuela in Caracas.
"This announcement sends a debilitated opposition running to find a candidate in very short time frame," he said.
Cabello said the election would be a mere formality.
"We're not going to have problems with the revolutionary candidacy," he said. "We have only one candidate to continue with the revolutionary project and the fatherland."
