Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro pledged on Thursday to hold a referendum on a new constitution he is proposing in response to two months of protests by opponents who call him a dictator and want an end to socialist rule. His comments came in response to criticism not just from opponents, but also some within government, that his plan to create a new super-body, known as a constituent assembly, to rewrite the national charter was anti-democratic. Chief state prosecutor Luisa Ortega had said creating the assembly, without a plebiscite as happened in 1999 when Maduro's predecessor Hugo Chavez rewrote the constitution, threatened to 'eliminate' democracy in Venezuela.
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