Venezuela Constitution Call is a 'Coup', Says Brazil

Brazil on Tuesday branded as a "coup" a proposal by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to change the constitution without authority from the legislature.

Maduro, whose security forces are clashing daily with anti-government demonstrators at increasingly violent street protests, said the new charter would be drawn up by a specially created assembly, not by the opposition-held Congress.

"I consider the proposal... a coup," Brazilian Foreign Minister Aloysio Nunes said in a statement on Facebook. "It's another step in breaking the democratic order, which contradicts the country's own constitution."

Leftist Maduro said he was invoking his power to create a 500-member constituent assembly representing a "working class base" and local councils to rewrite the constitution.