After a meeting between the Nicolas Maduro regime and the Venezuelan Episcopal Conference (CEV), the representation of the Catholic Church rejected the proposal of a constitutional assembly to rewrite the nation’s Constitution.
Monsignor Diego Padrón, CEV’s top representative, held a meeting with Elías Jaua, who heads the Presidential Commission of the “Communal Constituent Assembly.” In that meeting, Padrón assured that Venezuela does not need a new Constitution, but “food and medicine.”
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“It does not take a Constituent Assembly to reform the Constitution. The Constituent Assembly is not what the people need, what the people demand is food, medicine, and security,” he asserted.
Padrón also said that the Venezuelan Constitution does not need reform, what is needed is compliance with the document. He added that the South American country is also in urgent need of holding elections.
The Catholic Church representative also pointed out that the peaceful protests that are taking place in Venezuela should not be “seen as a criminal act.” He repudiated the deaths and wounded victims left in the wake of the repression of the regime of Nicolas Maduro.
He also called for Venezuelans to stay on the streets to work towards achieving “radical changes.”
“Protests and marches are democratic exercises that must be respected and guaranteed by the government […] so that radical changes can take place, we must maintain a permanent resistance; we can not weaken in our resolve.”
Padrón also called upon the Venezuelan regime to allow the humanitarian assistance of Caritas as well as to allow them to visit political prisoners.
“I would like to talk to the government about the possibility of bringing Caritas to Venezuela in order to bring our people medicine and food…We ask that we be authorized to visit political prisoners because they need human comfort,” he said.
Sources: 2001, Caraota Digital