04 August, 2017
The Vatican has issued a statement urging the government of Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro to abandon its plans to install a new National Assembly and rewrite the country's constitution.
The opposition has called a mass march in the capital over the body, elected last weekend in a vote marred by allegations of fraud.
The new 545-member body - whose members include Maduro's wife and son - will have sweeping powers to dissolve the opposition-majority congress, pass laws and write a new constitution.
Venezuela's new legislative body plans to take office Friday amid voter fraud claims, protests and the lack of support from the global community. That has raised fears of violence that could add to a death toll of more than 125 over the past four months.
Because of the ongoing investigation, Ortega's office asked a court to suspend the Constituent Assembly's inauguration on Thursday, the agency said on Twitter.
The politicians were taken by what appeared to be members of Venezuela's intelligence service SEBIN from their homes at night, videos distributed by their families show.
The Constituent Assembly marks a new stage in Venezuela's rule.
Key opposition leaders Leopoldo Lopez and Antonio Ledezma, a former Caracas mayor, were detained early on Tuesday.
The Vatican called for a "negotiated solution" that would provide humanitarian aid, fair elections and the release of political prisoners, and it appealed for an end to the violence that has plagued the country.
Venezuela's opposition postponed a protest against a powerful new assembly backed by President Maduro until the body opens Friday, amid worldwide condemnation and a fraud investigation.
Despite months of violent protests and global condemnation, Maduro insists it is the solution to a drawn-out economic and political crisis gripping Venezuela.
Smartmatic's CEO Antonio Mugica said the company has stood by all previous results but this time, they noticed a discrepancy of at least 1 million votes between the officially declared tally and what his company had recorded.
Although brushed off by Maduro as part of a plot by "the global enemy", that gave grounds for Venezuelan Attorney General Luisa Ortega, a thorn in Maduro's side, to order an investigation.
The country's supreme court has systematically sided with the president in blocking prosecutorial or legislative gambits against the government.
