'More than 600' Venezuelan opposition figures jailed

By Daniel Salgar

CARACAS, Venezuela

At least 600 members of Venezuela’s political opposition have been jailed as the persecution of dissidents ramps up, the parliament’s vice president has said.

Since President Nicolas Maduro side-lined the National Assembly by establishing an alternative chamber over the summer, political persecution has “dramatically increased”, Freddy Guevara told Anadolu Agency.

“After the illegitimate Constituent was set up, the persecution got worse,” he said, referring to the National Constituent Assembly (NCA) set up amid claims of election fraud and political unrest.

“Julio Borges, the president of the National Assembly and I were threatened,” Guevara added. “We are aware that at any moment they can detain us.”

Guevara is a leading opposition member and is currently in Europe to meet world leaders in a bid to develop support.

The National Assembly sits in the same legislative building as Maduro’s NCA but Guevara dismissed claims of coexistence between the two bodies, calling the current situation a “military occupation”.

“They enter by force and with the support of the military, they use those facilities,” he said.

“Here we have a military order to prevent the National Assembly, which is the legitimate administrator of these spaces, from using them.

Voting irregularities

“They occupy militarily to force the illegal entry of those that the government wants to be here [and] fraudulently elect people that usurp the functions of parliament.”

Pointing to irregularities in the election of NCA members and the government’s efforts to secure the vote by apportioning more delegates to pro-government areas, Guevara called the assembly a “fraud”.

“They set up an alternate National Assembly and, just like Nicolas Maduro said, what they couldn’t get with votes, they got with bullets.”

Following the establishment of the NCA, the U.S. enacted stiff economic penalties on its participants, blacklisted Maduro and restricted the state oil company’s access to credit.

U.S. President Donald Trump went further, saying he would not rule out the use of military force to end the political tumult.

Responding to the claim, Guevara said “nobody” wanted the situation resolved militarily. “That’s why we are doing everything we can in order to find a constitutional solution here, which does not involve the use of force,” he said.

The government had consistently accused the opposition of calling for U.S. intervention but Guevara said such claims has “no basis nor is there any evidence for this”.

* Michael Hernandez in Washington contributed to this article.