Venezuelan opposition lawmakers on Wednesday launched efforts to fire judges whom they accuse of mounting a judicial “coup” to keep Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in power.
The deputies’ effort looked unlikely to prosper since the decision to remove the judges depends on other state institutions loyal to the government.
The opposition accused the judges of last week attempting a “coup d’etat.”
Photo: AFP
The court had issued rulings transferring the assembly’s legislative powers to the court and revoking lawmakers’ immunity from prosecution.
The judges later reversed the rulings after an international outcry.
“They have carried out an ongoing internal coup,” senior opposition deputy Henry Ramos Allup told the assembly. “We have to escape from it by civil protests, exercising our constitutional functions and not giving in to a failed, outlaw government.”
Despite revoking last week’s judgements, the judges kept in force a series of other rulings that restrict the assembly’s powers.
The Venezuelan Supreme Court has consistently overruled the Venezuelan National Assembly legislature since the opposition majority took its seats in January last year.
Maduro is resisting opposition efforts to hold a vote on removing him from power.
The opposition blames him for Venezuela’s economic crisis, while he blames a capitalist conspiracy.
The collapse in energy prices has sapped the country’s revenues, prompting shortages of food, medicine and basic goods along with a surge in violent crime.
Elsewhere, protesters and riot police clashed with students demonstrating against the court rulings, reporters said.
Clashes broke out on Wednesday in the western city of San Cristobal, scene of deadly riots and looting last year.
Last week’s rulings drew concern from the US and Europe, as well as from Latin American powers.
On Wednesday, the European Parliament in Strasbourg debated the situation in Venezuela.
Deputies from the European People’s Party called for a tougher line on Maduro.
They demanded that Maduro release political prisoners and ensure humanitarian aid to those suffering in the crisis.
In an address to the parliament, EU Commissioner for Justice Vera Jourova reiterated the bloc’s call for timely elections in Venezuela and respect for the assembly’s role.
The Organization of American States (OAS) on Tuesday issued a resolution denouncing the court’s moves as gravely unconstitutional.
OAS Secretary-General Luis Almagro has been pressing for the group’s members to suspend Venezuela.
Venezuelan Minister of Foreign Affairs Delcy Rodriguez on Wednesday hit back at a meeting of the OAS council, rejecting the declaration as a “fraud.”
“Get your hands off Venezuela once and for all,” Rodriguez told Almagro.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing