Venezuela’s Maduro gives details of plan to rewrite charter

CARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro has announced how members of an assembly to rewrite the constitution will be selected even as a top judge has rejected the initiative.

A Supreme Court judge on Tuesday criticized the socialist administration’s bid to rewrite the constitution amid a deepening political crisis. Danilo Mojica became the first member of the court to speak against the initiative. He said it was not the appropriate way to respond to a month and a half of street protests.

The opposition is demanding general elections.

Maduro gave details about how the people tasked with writing a new constitution will be chosen. He said 540 representatives will be selected in elections, and that the assembly will favour groups including workers and students over political and economic elites.