- Title: Venezuelan fugitive mayor calls for resistance to Maduro
- Date: 9th August 2017
- Summary: CARACAS, VENEZUELA (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF ACTIVISTS AND POLICE CLASHING VARIOUS OF PEOPLE MARCHING IN PROTEST OF GOVERNMENT
- Embargoed: 23rd August 2017 16:55
- Keywords: fugitive mayor Ramon Muchacho of Chacao video defying Supreme Court order
- Location: CARACAS AND UNDISCLOSED LOCATION, VENEZUELA
- City: CARACAS AND UNDISCLOSED LOCATION, VENEZUELA
- Country: Venezuela
- Topics: Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA0016TFRJUV
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: A Venezuelan mayor on the run to avoid jail for allowing anti-government protests in his Caracas district called for the opposition to keep resisting leftist President Nicolas Maduro, whose powers are being expanded by a new legislative superbody.
Ramon Muchacho, mayor of the wealthy district of Chacao, appeared in a video shot from a clandestine location after Maduro's loyalist Supreme Court sentenced him to 15 months for defying an order to stop protesters from disrupting traffic.
He was clad in a white T-shirt emblazoned with the Venezuelan flag and said the video was shot shortly before midnight.
Muchacho was the fourth Venezuelan mayor to be charged over the last 15 days with failing to prevent protesters from blocking traffic through their jurisdictions, and a fifth was scheduled for a court hearing later on Wednesday.
Critics inside and outside Venezuela have denounced the new 545-member body as an attempt to remove any remaining checks on Maduro's power. It has the authority of rewrite the constitution, rejig state institutions and allow the president to rule by decree. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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