CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) – Opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez called on Venezuelans to support a 48-hour general strike beginning Wednesday in protest of government plans to rewrite the constitution, in his first direct public message since being released from prison to house arrest.
The 46-year-old former Caracas-area mayor, who was sentenced to 14 years in 2015 after being convicted of inciting violence during a previous spate of protests, also appealed to the military not to deploy for Sunday’s election of a constituent assembly tasked with overhauling the embattled nation’s charter.
“We are on the brink of their trying to annihilate the republic that you swore to defend,” Lopez said in a 15-minute video message. “I ask you not to be accomplices in the annihilation of the republic.”
Streets were quiet Wednesday morning in much of the capital, Caracas, as many residents stayed home in observance of the strike.
President Nicolas Maduro is promoting the constitution rewrite as a means of resolving Venezuela’s political standoff and economic crisis, but opposition leaders are boycotting it. The assembly could dramatically reshape government and help Maduro further consolidate his power.