Venezuela’s Catholic Church said today that constitutional reforms planned by the country’s leftist government in response to a deadly political crisis were turning the country into a “military dictatorship.”
The plan “will be imposed by force and its result will be that constitutional status will be given to a military, socialist, Marxist and communist dictatorship,” the head of the Venezuelan Episcopal Conference, Diego Padron, told a news conference.
The church has long had strained relations with President Nicolas Maduro, who is under mounting opposition and international pressure to hold early elections.