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Many Venezuelans believed that something approaching the end of the world was coming on the 30th of July. The election of an all-powerful Constituent Assembly pushes further the legal rulings that blocked Nicolás Maduro's recall referendum last October of last year, and those that de facto dissolved the opposition-held Congress this March. That is to say, it grants, through this legal route, all power to a government, which was defeated overwhelmingly at election and which, according to polls, is not in a fit state to win another election.
One hundred days of protests, which intensified since Maduro announced on the 1st of May that he was convoking a Constituent assembly and so bypassing the steps stipulated by law and the principles of equality and universal suffrage, have not prevented his efforts. Neither did the appeals from many countries, United States' sanctions or the negotiation attempts led by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. With firm support from the Armed Forces, the votes were cast on the 30th of July. In the early hours of the morning the National Electoral Council announced that just over eight million people had turned out to vote. Maduro declared himself to have won. An all-powerful Constituent assembly has been installed and most Venezuelans wonder anxiously what will come next.
