Alwaght- Members of Venezuela's National Constituent Assembly, ANC, have taken their seats five days after the nation voted.
545 elected members of ANC were sworn in on Friday in the capital Caracas where they were joined by thousands of supporters in a march to the parliament building in Caracas while holding paintings of independence hero Simon Bolivar and former president Hugo Chavez, leader of the Bolivarian Revolution.
Chavez's successor, Nicolas Maduro, tweeted that nothing could stop the people from creating a new history and pledged that they would be victorious.
During the ceremony, the former Venezuelan Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez was unanimously elected as president of the body.
Former Venezuelan vice presidents Aristobulo Isturiz and Isaias Rodriguez were elected as first and second vice presidents of the body respectively.
"The same bourgeoisie that opposed Chavez's first National Constituent Assembly are today trying to silence the voices of the people in support of this one," Rodriguez said.
The powerful 554-seat body is capable of dissolving the opposition-led legislature and rewriting the constitution.
Meanwhile, Venezuelan President Maduro says his country is facing an “armed insurgency,” also criticizing the prosecutor’s office for failure to control the opposition-led violent protests across the Latin American country.
During an army event marking the 80th anniversary of Venezuela’s National Guard on Friday, Maduro praised the country’s military and called on troops to remain alert in dealing with the insurgency amid the ongoing political turmoil.
“We have faced and we are facing an armed insurgency. And the National Bolivarian Armed Forces, general in chief, chief admiral, commanding minister, pre-operational strategist, commander of the four components of the national militia, the National Bolivarian Armed Forces must prepare itself in non-traditional combat methods,” the socialist president said.
The Venezuelan president also pointed the finger of blame at the US and Colombia for the deadly unrest gripping the country for months.
Washington imposed sanctions against 13 current and former Venezuelan officials after doing the same to the country’s vice president in February. The US Treasury Department later froze Maduro’s US assets and called him a “dictator” for pushing ahead with the ANC election.
