BOGOTA, Colombia _Venezuelans Sunday will elect the members of a new body that the government says will restore peace to the nation and critics claim will mean the end of democracy.
Voters will choose 545 members of the National Constituent Assembly, or ANC, which would become the highest authority in Venezuela. The delegates _ most of them expected to be ruling-party loyalists _ would have the power to rewrite the 1999 constitution, dissolve other branches of government, and call and cancel future elections.
The new body is the ultimate "blank check," Attorney General Luisa Ortega said. "A small group attached to the executive (branch) will get to decide everything."
The opposition fears that President Nicolas Maduro and the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela, PSUV, would use the ANC to cling to power or impose one-party rule.
Human Rights Watch, a U.S.-based nonprofit group, expects the ANC to use its "frighteningly wide and vaguely defined powers" to dissolve the opposition-controlled congress, lift parliamentary immunity and prosecute opposition legislators, sack the rebellious attorney general and, perhaps, suspend the presidential elections slated for December 2018.
But the ANC might act in unpredictable ways.
By most accounts, Sunday's vote is illegal. Scholars say a referendum had to be called before the government starts changing the constitution. That never happened. But the opposition did organize an unofficial informal referendum July 16, in which more than 7 million people turned out _ the vast majority to reject the very idea of the ANC.
Even as he has pushed ahead with the constitutional rewrite, Maduro has been trying to get the opposition to the negotiating table in hope of quelling widespread protests and strikes in which almost 100 people have died and and paralyzed much of the nation.
On Thursday, Maduro called on the opposition again to "abandon the path of insurrection" and begin negotiations before the ANC goes to work.
That's unlikely, however, as the opposition has said it won't negotiate unless the constituent assembly is canceled. It is also calling for more protests over the weekend to disrupt the vote, even as the government has said it will crack down on what it considers to be illegal demonstrations.
Venezuela suffers from triple-digit inflation, rampant crime, sporadic food shortages and collapsing oil prices.
Moving ahead with the election is likely to make things worse. On Wednesday, the U.S. government imposed sanctions on 13 current and former officials, including the head of the electoral office, Tibisay Lucena. And President Donald Trump is promising even more economic retaliation if Sunday's vote happens, perhaps even cutting off Venezuela's oil exports to the United States.
But there are no guarantees that the ANC will save Maduro's job, or bring peace to the country. If anything, the new entity almost guarantees more tension and political duress.
