New assembly dividing Venezuela begins work

A new assembly packed with allies of unpopular President Nicolas Maduro and with sweeping powers was to begin work today, deepening divisions in a crisis- wracked Venezuela.
The Constituent Assembly, headed by a former foreign minister, Delcy Rodriguez, is tasked with rewriting the 1999 constitution into a charter Maduro has promised will end the turmoil rocking his impoverished yet oil-rich nation.
Yesterday, the body took over an ornate chamber under a golden dome in the Legislative Palace in Caracas -- at the far end of a building shared with the opposition-run legislature, the National Assembly.
Elected a week ago amid bloody protests and international objections, the Constituent Assembly has powers to override every branch of government, and can dissolve the legislature.

Its detractors say the 545 loyalist members -- among them the president's wife and son -- amount to a rubber-stamp entity extending Maduro's "dictator"-like grip on power.
The United States, the European Union, the Vatican and major Latin American nations including Mexico, Argentina and Chile have all condemned the new body, saying it undermines democracy and stokes tensions in Venezuela.

Mercosur, a South American trading bloc, was meeting on Saturday in Brazil to decide whether Venezuelan should be suspended from it for "breaching democratic order."
The legitimacy of the Constituent Assembly has been thrown into question by claims of fraud, most notably by a British-based firm, Smartmartic, which was involved in supplying the technology for the July 30 vote.

Smartmatic said the official turnout figure had been "tampered with" and exaggerated by at least one million voters.
The opposition has vowed to maintain street protests against the assembly, despite being increasingly sidelined and despondent.
Maduro's security forces have stepped up pressure on dissenters. The Vatican has urged them to show restraint after a death toll from four months of unrest of 125.
A prominent opposition leader, Leopoldo Lopez, was thrown back in military prison after the intelligence service roughly ended a brief spell of house arrest granted last month.
Another leader, Caracas mayor Antonio Ledezma, was released back into home detention on Friday after being hauled away the same day as Lopez.