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Venezuela: Maduro launches anti-coup commission in face of Mud

By Our Foreign Desk

VENEZUELAN President Nicolas Maduro launched a new commission on Tuesday to investigate political violence and prevent attempted coups.

The inauguration of the Truth, Justice, and Victims Reparation Commission marked the anniversary of the failed 2002 coup d’etat against Mr Maduro’s late predecessor Hugo Chavez.

The commission will work to expose human rights violations and prevent attempts to undermine democracy such as the 2014 Guarimba riots, organised by the Democratic Unity Roundtable (Mud) party in a bid to oust Mr Maduro, which killed 43 people.

Mr Maduro has invited four opposition leaders to sit on the commission, which will be co-ordinated by new Vice-President Aristobulo Isturiz.

Union of South American Nations (Unasur) secretary-general and ex-president of Colombia Ernesto Samper, who will accompany the commission, attended the launch at Miraflores Palace, the presidential residence in Caracas.

“This commission offers Venezuelans the possibility of finding a true path of dialogue,” he said, adding that it would “give visibility to victims” and “guarantee non-repetition” of attacks on democracy.

“I come from a country that has suffered much from armed conflict,” Mr Samper said. “Peace doesn’t revolve around the victimisers, but the victims.”

Mr Maduro’s administration proposed the commission in following the right-wing opposition landslide in December’s National Assembly elections.

The Supreme Court has rejected an amnesty for the instigators of the halted 2002 and 2014 coups under legislation passed last month by Mud.

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