[15] Following the death of former President Hugo Chávez, citizens suffered under a socioeconomic crisis under his successor, Nicolás Maduro, as rampant crime, hyperinflation and shortages diminished their quality of life.

[26] The following days after the recall movement was cancelled, 1.2 million Venezuelans protested throughout the country against the move and demanded President Maduro to leave office.

On March 29, 2017, in a surprising move, the TSJ declared it was taking over the legislative powers of Assembly for "as long as the contempt situation persists".

[45] On 22 May, the Republican Moral Council – which the opposition hoped would establish proceedings against TSJ judges – shared their approval of the National Constituent Assembly despite the absence of Attorney General Ortega, who had criticized the move, with Ombudsman Tarek William Saab stating that "The call to the National Constituent Assembly is a constitutional exit to the political situation that the country is living, in order to foster dialogue and coexistence of the country".

[46] Votes or bullets, what do the people want?The following day, the head of the National Electoral Council (CNE),[47] Tibisay Lucena, officially approved President Maduro's proposal for a Constituent Assembly shortly after TSJ judges began to speak out against the proposal, announcing that the internal elections would be held in late-July on an unspecified date, paving a way to replace Hugo Chávez's 1999 constitution.

[51] At the rally, President Maduro criticized the governments of the United States, Mexico and Colombia and alleged that they attempted to intervene in Venezuela.

Many public workers remained conflicted due to the threat of being fired, knowing that their job benefits from the government would be cut and that their identity could be revealed in a similar manner to the Tascón List incident during the Venezuelan recall referendum in 2004.

[60] Citizens of Caracas awoke to streets filled with barricades and various areas of protesters calling for democracy, with authorities responding to the demonstrations with force, firing tear gas at those gathered.

[61][64] A leaked audio of Víctor Julio González, mayor of Santa Lucía in the Miranda state, said that he was worried that most of the polling stations were empty and the proposed participation had not been reached, asking for more voters to be mobilized.

[66] Despite the empty streets and polling areas, the Bolivarian government extended voting hours, stating that there had still been large lines of voters still attempting to participate.

[68] Maduro vowed to pursue the opposition "with the virtually unlimited powers of a constituent assembly", vowing that opposition officials would be jailed, the opposition-led National Assembly elected in 2015 would be dissolved and that the Public Ministry of Venezuela headed by Attorney General Luisa Ortega Díaz, who broke ranks from Maduro's government, would be restructured.

[76] However, according to the Reuters report, both Chief Prosecutor Luisa Ortega Díaz and Luis Rondon, one of the CNE's five directors, spoke out against the results.

[78] Andrés Oppenheimer considers that the proposal would allow Maduro to abolish all the democratic institutions in Venezuela, in a similar process to the 1976 Constitution of Cuba.

[79] Mariana Zuñiga and Nick Miroff stated in The Washington Post:[80] When your house is burning and smack in the path of a Category 5 hurricane, it's probably not the best time to tear down the frame and jackhammer the foundation.

But those are the home improvement plans of President Nicolás Maduro, who is moving forward with a provocative attempt to rewrite Venezuela's constitution despite the country's descent into political and economic catastrophe.Danilo Antonio Mojica Monsalvo, the magistrate of the Social Cassation Chamber of the TSJ, announced his disagreement with President Maduro's Constituent Assembly on 23 May 2017, stating that without a popular referendum voting on the assembly, the move would be "spurious ... a legal metaphor to describe what is done outside the Constitution".

[81] Another TSJ judge, Marisela Godoy, spoke out against Maduro's proposal the same day, stating "At this moment I support, without any fear, the attorney general (Luisa Ortega Díaz), who is not any official" and that if she were to be criticized by the government, she "does not care".

[82] Gerardo Blyde [es], mayor of Baruta municipality, pointed out that, although the article 347 does authorize the proposal by President Maduro, it should have been ratified by a public referendum.