Venezuela’s National Constituent Assembly holds its first meeting at the legislative palace in Caracas Friday, despite international outcry and opposition protests.

The gathering of the 545 delegates elected to rewrite Venezuela’s constitution is setting the stage for a possible showdown between President Nicolas Maduro and the political opposition, which says the election was not fair.

The United States will not recognize the National Constituent Assembly, State Department Spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement Thursday, adding that the election lacked credible international observation.

The U.S. considers the assembly “the illegitimate product of a flawed process designed by the Maduro dictatorship to further its assault on democracy,” Nauert said.

Venezuelan authorities returned opposition leader Antonio Ledezma to house arrest after taking him to prison on Tuesday, Ledezma’s wife said via Twitter on Friday.

Twitter video showed intelligence agents dragging Antonio Ledezma and Leopoldo Lopez out of their homes and shoving them into cars. The two had been under house arrest for previous opposition activities.

President Donald Trump said in a statement late Tuesday that “Mr. Lopez and Mr. Ledezma are political prisoners being held illegally by the regime… we reiterate our call for the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners.”

Opposition leaders are calling for a mass protest Friday. 

“The only way they’ll get us out of here is by killing us,” said opposition spokesman Freddy Guevara. “They will never have the seat that the people of Venezuela gave us.”

The opposition contends the vote was rigged to pack the assembly with supporters of Maduro. Maduro’s opponents are demanding early presidential elections.

Venezuela’s attorney general, Luisa Ortega Diaz, said Thursday she had opened an investigation into alleged voter fraud. She filed the request for investigation in a lower court, after earlier filing complaints about the constitutionality of the new assembly with the nation’s Supreme Court.

Venezuela’s president and election chief Wednesday denied a report that voter turnout numbers were manipulated and inflated by at least 1 million for the controversial election to choose an assembly to rewrite the national constitution.

The next scheduled election is October 2018.
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