VENEZUELA’S highest court rejected a challenge to the government’s bid to end the crisis on Monday as an opposition general strike began.

Opposition protesters marched to the Supreme Court building in Caracas in support of Attorney General Luisa Ortega’s challenge to the new national constituent assembly.

The assembly was convened by socialist President Nicolas Maduro to chart a way out of the political and economic crisis in Venezuela that has left more than 80 dead in two months of riots incited by the opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable (Mud).

But Ms Ortega, waving a copy of the 1999 Bolivarian constitution introduced under late president Hugo Chavez, claimed that she was trying to “restore the stability of the country.” She also introduced a new complaint contesting the appointment of 13 Supreme Court judges and 21 reserve judges, 10 days after the Mud won a majority in the national assembly in December 2015, which the opposition claimed had filled the court with gov

ernment supporters. But Public Defender William Tarek Saab, the national ombudsman, pointed out that Ms Ortega had raised no objections, “neither oral nor written,” to their appointments at the time.

Housing Minister Manuel Quevedo accused Ms Ortega of granting the Mud “impunity” after 900 workers and 45 pre-school children at a creche had to be evacuated when militants attacked the the ministry building in the capital’s Chacao district.

Mr Quevado accused Chacao Mayor Ramon Muchacho of “providing protection to the terrorist groups that carried out the attack.”

Supreme Court president Maikel Moreno also blamed “terrorists” for an attack on another court building in the capital.

Meanwhile the local Southwest Transporters Bloc bus drivers’ association in the capital went on strike, demanding the government guarantee its members’ safety during the riots. Bloc president Pedro Jimenez said: “Every time we leave our homes we don’t know if we’ll return alive.”

The union also demanded the release of driver Santos Quevedo, arrested two weeks ago on charges of transporting a group of Mud militants. His colleagues claim the rioters forced him to drive them.

But the Venezuelan foreign ministry’s newsletter Chavez Lives said the stoppage was the first round in an unofficial general strike in support of the Mud’s regime change agenda. It recalled the 2002 managers’ lockout at state oil company PDVSA following that year’s failed military coup that cost the country some $20 billion (£16bn) in lost revenues.