The government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro will present to Parliament a draft
“law against fascism”
intended to sanction opponents who, according to him, have promoted
“acts of violence”
.
Nicolas Maduro, who is expected to run for a third consecutive six-year term at the end of July, often refers to his opponents as
“fascists”
or
“extreme right”
.
He initiated a procedure to present
“a bill against fascism and any neofascist expression in the exercise of politics and national life
,” wrote Vice-President Delcy Rodriguez on X.
“It is a response to the violence that the country experienced in 2014, 2015 and 2017
,” she added, referring to the anti-government demonstrations which left more than a hundred dead.
In 2017, Nicolas Maduro, then challenged by demonstrations which left more than 125 dead, had already proposed a
“law against hatred, peaceful coexistence and tolerance”
, an instrument that the opposition accuses of criminalizing dissent.
The first convictions under this law in 2018 concerned two people who protested against the lack of food.