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"The Venezuelan Congress wants prosecutors to open a criminal investigation into Maria Corina Machado, a 46-year-old congresswoman and opposition leader who has become one of the most prominent faces behind the protests that have been sweeping the country for six weeks.\nMembers of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, led by President Nicolas Maduro, asked the Attorney General to launch a criminal probe to determine whether Machado committed treason and other crimes on Tuesday. \nSee also: Despite Protests, Cult of Chavez Endures in Caracas\nThe Venezuelan government is going after Machado a month after taking another prominent opposition face out of the spotlight. On Feb. 21, Leopoldo Lopez, a former mayor who launched the opposition movement \u201CThe Exit\u201D earlier this year with Machado, turned himself in after the government accused him of murder and terrorism for the deaths of three people in the big protests of Feb. 12.\nThe National Assembly, Venezuela's Congress,  gathered on Tuesday to form a \"Truth Commission\" tasked with investigating the protests and assess whether someone should be held responsible for it. \nBut the session was interrupted when Tania Diaz, a congresswoman for the Socialist Party, asked for an urgent motion to establish whether any parliament members \u2014 implicitly referring to Machado \u2014 were committing crimes related to the protest, as reported by the Spanish newspaper El Pais. \nThe president of the National Assembly and Maduro's right-hand man, Diosdado Cabello, suspended the session; several Socialist Congress members marched to the Attorney General's headquarters to formally request an inquiry into Machado's actions. This request, El Pais notes, is the necessary first step to suspend Machado's parliamentary immunity, something that would open up the door for a criminal investigation.\n\"We will not permit impunity. We will ensure revenge for those deaths. We will ensure these deaths will be paid for,\" Diaz said, according to Reuters. \"Anyone who violates the right to life is violating the constitution.\"\nCabello echoed Diaz's words, stating that the Venezuelan laws \"will reach Maria Machado.\"\n\"If we want peace, there must be justice,\" he later tweeted.\n\nA cada conspiraci\u00F3n contra la Patria la respuesta ser\u00E1 mas radicalizaci\u00F3n de la Revoluci\u00F3n Bolivariana, si queremos Paz debe haber Justicia\n\u2014 Diosdado Cabello R (@dcabellor) March 19, 2014\n\nDuring the parliament session, Machado sat \"stone-faced\" as other members chanted \"justice, justice.\" She later held a press conference, which was live streamed on YouTube.\n\"I'm convinced that this attack against me is the product of a regime that's terrified by an unprecedented citizens' movement,\" she said defiantly.\nMachado also reaffirmed her commitment to the protests on Twitter. \"I called and accompanied the peaceful protests in Venezuela and I will keep doing it. I feel proud of what we the Venezuelans are doing,\" she wrote.\n\nHe convocado y acompa\u00F1ado la protesta pac\u00EDfica en Vzla y lo seguir\u00E9 haciendo!!Me siento orgullosa de lo que estamos haciendo los venezolanos\n\u2014 Mar\u00EDa Corina Machado (@MariaCorinaYA) March 18, 2014\n\nLopez is currently still imprisoned; the government dropped the murder and terrorism charges, but he is still accused of arson and conspiracy. Machado might face prison if she is convicted of treason and the other crimes that Maduro's supporters accuse her of.  \nHave something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.\n      window._msla=window.loadScriptAsync||function(src,id){if(document.getElementById(id))return;var js=document.createElement('script');js.id=id;js.src=src;document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0].parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);};\n_msla(\"//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\",\"twitter_jssdk\");"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2014/03/19/venezuela-congress-maria-machado/>