Venezuela enters key week in battle on charter rewrite

Pro- and anti-government groups are battling fiercely for public support over a contested plan by embattled President Nicolas Maduro to have a new body elected this month to rewrite the constitution.The opposition, energised by the release from jail of one of its emblematic leaders, Leopoldo Lopez, is leading the charge against the new assembly to be chosen in a July 30 election. On Monday, it organised a demonstration in Caracas, during which dozens of protesters and some security force personnel confronting them were injured. Unrest also spread to other cities. On Sunday, the opposition will hold its own symbolic public vote on whether the new constitutional assembly should be established. “This population has decided to continue the fight for liberty,” one opposition lawmaker taking part, Freddy Guevara, said. “Sunday will be the biggest act of civil disobedience in Venezuela’s history.” More…