CARACAS: Venezuelans were set to learn on Monday the scope of a state of emergency that President Nicolas Maduro declared at the start of the weekend, as the country’s political crisis enters a critical stage.
The expected government decree explaining the emergency order will come as the military prepares for exercises to counter an unspecified “armed intervention,” while opponents plan a march demanding a vote to recall Maduro.
The president’s unspecified emergency measure could be used to limit the right to protest, authorize preventive arrests and allow police raids without a warrant.
Maduro late Friday extended a decree of “economic emergency” first announced in January that allows him, among other things, to seize paralyzed factories.
But in a surprise move he also declared a full-blown state of emergency for three months, suggesting that the measure could be extended through 2017.
Maduro said the government would expropriate factories that had been closed by owners complaining of a lack of raw materials and foreign currency to pay suppliers.
“We must take all measures to recover productive capacity, which is being paralyzed by the bourgeoisie,” he told a rally of his supporters in Caracas.
“Anyone who wants to halt (production) to sabotage the country should get out, and those who do must be handcuffed” and imprisoned, he said.
The announcement could notably affect the Polar group, Venezuela’s biggest food company, which halted production on April 30.
The expected government decree explaining the emergency order will come as the military prepares for exercises to counter an unspecified “armed intervention,” while opponents plan a march demanding a vote to recall Maduro.
The president’s unspecified emergency measure could be used to limit the right to protest, authorize preventive arrests and allow police raids without a warrant.
Maduro late Friday extended a decree of “economic emergency” first announced in January that allows him, among other things, to seize paralyzed factories.
But in a surprise move he also declared a full-blown state of emergency for three months, suggesting that the measure could be extended through 2017.
Maduro said the government would expropriate factories that had been closed by owners complaining of a lack of raw materials and foreign currency to pay suppliers.
“We must take all measures to recover productive capacity, which is being paralyzed by the bourgeoisie,” he told a rally of his supporters in Caracas.
“Anyone who wants to halt (production) to sabotage the country should get out, and those who do must be handcuffed” and imprisoned, he said.
The announcement could notably affect the Polar group, Venezuela’s biggest food company, which halted production on April 30.
