Showdown set in Venezuela as new assembly prepares for power

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuela is nearing a showdown, with President Nicolas Maduro vowing to install a new constituent assembly that will trump every other branch of government and opposition leaders calling for a mass protest to ensure delegates know their arrival is unwelcome.

The first meeting of the 545 delegates is expected to convene today at the legislative palace in Caracas -- only yards from the room where the opposition-controlled National Assembly holds its sessions.

The legislative palace has been witness to bloody clashes in recent weeks, and today's installation of the all-powerful assembly, which Maduro has vowed to use to strip opposition lawmakers of their constitutional immunity, sets the stage for an intensified power struggle.

Opposition lawmakers in congress have vowed they will be removed only by force.

"The only way they'll get us out of here is by killing us," declared Freddy Guevara, the National Assembly's first vice president. "They will never have the seat that the people of Venezuela gave us."

Sunday's election of the constituent assembly has come under mounting scrutiny after the CEO of an international voting technology company said Wednesday "without any doubt" the voter turnout numbers had been tampered with -- accusations Maduro and the National Electoral Council have dismissed.

A growing list of foreign nations has refused to recognize the assembly, and many within Venezuela fear its installation will open a dark chapter in the nation's history.

"There has been a gradual erosion of democratic practice, and this is a significant line that has been crossed," said Michael Shifter, president of the Washington-based think tank Inter-American Dialogue. "To attach the term 'democracy' to Venezuela with this new constituent assembly is on very weak ground."