Venezuela crisis: In Nicolas Maduro's move for greater power, shades of Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan is visible

On Sunday, Venezuela voted on the creation of a Constituent Assembly. The Socialist party claimed victory in the same but the opposition vowed to keep protesting despite deadly clashes. That the Socialist Party won did not come as a surprise to anyone as the Opposition had boycotted the election. What happens now though is much harder to predict. This assembly’s immediate agenda would be to rewrite the Constitution. It would however be more than a mere one-time lawmaking body as it would function as a “superagency” with authority above all government branches, including the one-chamber National Assembly. Currently, the National Assembly is the only part of the government controlled by the opposition. Worryingly, the Constituent Assembly will have the power to even dissolve the National Assembly. The Constituent Assembly has 545 members supposedly selected in an impartial manner. However the way these members were selected  actually favours the ruling Socialist party and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro. Furthermore, the Opposition’s boycott of the election means that the majority of the candidates will represent the Socialist party [caption id=“attachment_3876079” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. AP[/caption] It is thus clear that the Constituent Assembly will work on the Maduro’s directions. There was only one place for the Opposition to dissent, namely the National Assembly but with the Constituent Assembly in power, he will be able to override them as he pleases. What he intends to do with these powers is hardly a secret as in an address on state-run television, he said that he wants the Assembly to strip legislators in the opposition-controlled National Assembly of their immunity. He also wants to see at least one of them jailed — Freddy Guevara, the legislature’s first vice president and one of the highest-profile organisers of protests against the government. “This little Hitler has his cell guaranteed!” Maduro shouted, using his frequent nickname for Guevara. Moreover, it’s also unclear how long the Assembly will be in session. Its members will decide that. The next elections will be set by the Assembly which means that Maduro’s re-election could be delayed from its scheduled date in 2018 to whenever the Assembly pleases. Maduro thus seems set to replace democracy in Venezuela and while will not immediately install a dictatorship, will certainly sow the seeds of one. In this he would hardly be the first leader to take over more powers than the people initially intended to give him. In Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has already set an example of how to slowly take power from the people. Tolerate no dissent The first step that both have taken are to kill dissent. Erdogan faced a coup attempt in July 2016, following which he went on a purge of state institutions and civil society, according to The Washington Post. He arrested and sidelined tens of thousands of people, regardless of their connections to the coup. Maduro is by no means as powerful as Erdogan in his country but he still has used the armed forces to crack down on protesters in the streets. And as discussed above, the last bastion of his political opposition, the National Assembly too may not be around for long. Maduro has taken notice of Erdogan’s actions. “Did you see what happened in Turkey?” he asked in an event in August 2016. “Erdogan will seem like a nursing baby compared to what the Bolivarian revolution will do if the right wing steps over the line with a coup.” Rally people against an enemy Erdogan used this tactic to great effect as he fought rhetorical battles with foreign governments, said The Washington Post. He built up threats to Turkey by “crusaders” and “Nazi” Europeans. Like in many other countries, nationalism has proved a useful way to rouse a nationalist base for Erdogan. Maduro too has built up a number of enemies but the foremost among them is the USA. He insists that there is US-backed right-wing “coup” plot to topple his socialist government. The Constituent Assembly is his method of foiling this plot. “We need a power that is above the other powers that are sabotaging the country’s development,” he has said. Unsurprisingly, he has not explained what should be changed from the current constitution, nor what specific reforms would put an end to Venezuela’s political and economic crisis. Hope still for Venezuela Turkey currently is very much a dictatorship under Erdogan who holds absolute power. Venezuela on the other hand saw protests right till the day of the vote. A survey was conducted in June in which only 23 percent of the respondents favoured the constituent Assembly. Only 19 percent said they thought a new constitution would “guarantee the peace of stability of the country,” as Maduro has asserted. Nearly half said they believe the purpose of the Assembly is to ensure Maduro stays in power. Earlier in July, more than 7.5 million Venezuelans voted in an unofficial opposition referendum rejecting the constitution rewrite. Such open acts of defiance would be unthinkable in Erdogan’s Turkey. Thus even as Maduro puts in place institutions which solidify his power, he would be well aware that it could all be undone in an instant. It would require a revolution of sorts but as the surveys have already shown, the people are not behind Maduro. The Opposition too has constantly been on the offensive and if it can rally the people against Maduro, Venezuela might just escape the clutches of dictatorship. With inputs from agencies