After months of fatal protests, Venezuela braces for controversial vote Sunday

Voting was underway in Venezuela on Sunday in a controversial election that has deepened the political crisis gripping the South American nation.

Clashes with police continued in parts of the capital of Caracas on Saturday. In opposition strongholds in the relatively wealthy eastern part of the capital city, teenagers manned barricades of tree branches, garbage and barbed wire torn from nearby buildings, the Associated Press reports. Clashes with police began late Friday afternoon and lasted into the night.

Other parts of the city were calm, however, as the socialist government of President Nicolás Maduro prepared for Sunday's vote to elect members of a special assembly that would rewrite the country’s 1999 constitution created under President Hugo Chávez.

Opposition leaders have called for massive marches on the day of the vote, arguing that the election has been structured to ensure that Maduro’s ruling socialist party dominates.

The opposition says the government is so afraid of low turnout that it’s threatening to fire state workers who don’t vote and take away social benefits like subsidized food from recipients who stay away from the polls.

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The resulting National Constituent Assembly could become one of the most powerful organs in the country, creating what many fear will be a single-party authoritarian system.

Civil war is a real possibility because peaceful demonstrations don't seem to have had an effect on the dissolution of the Maduro regime, said Geoff Ramsey, Venezuelan associate at the Washington Office on Latin America, which promotes human rights, democracy and economic justice.

“The government controls the armed forces and has all the guns, but at the same time the opposition is taking all the steps needed to take over the government,” Ramsey said.

Maduro is unlikely to stay in power for much longer, Ramsey added, because his policies are affecting everyone, including those loyal to his regime. “It’s fair to suspect that widespread food and medicine shortages are taking a toll of the loyalty of the military,” he said. “Everyone is affected by this.”

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Marion Smith, executive director of Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, also thinks Venezuela is close to civil war.

People once loyal to the left-wing Chavista movement have now turned against Maduro, leaving him with little to no popular support, Smith said.

"If Maduro goes ahead with this illegal election, he is the one causing a civil war because he has essentially enacted a coup against the Venezuelan people and their elected officials,” he said.

Antonio De la Cruz, executive director of Inter American Trends, predicts more violence and an increase in casualties in upcoming weeks, but believes a civil war is unlikely.

"A civil war occurs in a country where the opposition confronts its government with weapons, and the opposition (in Venezuela) has none,” he said. “The military would have to divide and turn against the government."

"There will be deaths, a lot of deaths if the government decides to continue oppressing its people,” De la Cruz said. "What could happen is more violence and more deaths caused by the government."

Already, at least 113 people have been killed and nearly 2,000 wounded during the four months of protests leading up to the election.

But Maduro's supporters, like constitutional lawyer Jesus Silva of Caracas, believe the constitutional changes will restore stability and preserve democratic institutions, providing more possibilities of overcoming the current crisis.

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Earlier this week, the Trump administration hit Venezuela with new sanctions targeting 13 current or former top officials in Maduro’s government and threatened more penalties if he goes through with efforts to rewrite the constitution.

Vice President Mike Pence repeated the threat Friday, promising “strong and swift economic sanctions” against the Maduro government after Sunday’s vote.

Polls show that more than 70% of the country is opposed to the election. But as many as half of all Venezuelans support neither the government nor the opposition.

Contributing: Associated Press