Published on 28 November 2017 by venezuelanalysis
Venezuela: Communal Activists Protest ANC to Demand Permission for Local Candidate
Communards accuse the National Constituent Assembly leadership of blocking the mayoral candidacy of commune leader Angel Prado.
Communards protest outside Venezuela’s National Constituent Assembly to demand permission for Angel Prado to run for mayor. Sign reads, “We make the revolution within the revolution.” (@ComunaElMaizal)
By Lucas Koerner
Caracas, November 28, 2017 (venezuelanalysis.com) –Nearly a thousand members of the El Maizal Commune in Lara state marched on Venezuela’s National Constituent Assembly (ANC) in Caracas Monday to demand the body authorize their candidate for local mayor.
The communards made the over five-hour trek to the capital to urge the body to give permission to local communal leader Angel Prado, who is an elected ANC delegate, so he can run for mayor of the Simon Planas municipality on December 10.
“We have come to peacefully protest because our rights are being violated,” explains El Maizal member Jose Peraza.
Prado has been tied up in a protracted bureaucratic dispute with Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE), which has yet to register his candidacy despite the communal leader having the backing of four leftist political parties and over nine thousand signatures from local residents.
On November 24, the CNE informed Prado that he must have permission from the ANC leadership in order to launch his candidacy, though this instruction was reportedly communicated to the electoral authority’s state office a full 17 days prior.