Venezuela’s pro-government Constitutional Assembly on Friday took over the powers of the opposition-led Venezuelan Congress, dramatically escalating a standoff between Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his political foes.
The move triggered further international condemnation from the dozens of countries that have already criticized the creation of the all-powerful assembly as an undemocratic power grab by Maduro.
Assembly delegates approved a decree giving them the authority to pass legislation “to guarantee the peace, sovereignty and economic well-being of Venezuelans” in the face of what they consider machinations and sabotage by Maduro’s opponents.
While the decree does not explicitly dissolve Congress, it virtually nullifies the already-enfeebled powers.
One Socialist Party leader said lawmakers would need permission from the Constitutional Assembly to convene Congress.
“We will teach them a historic lesson,” Constitutional Assembly President Delcy Rodriguez said as delegates broke into loud applause while voting by acclamation for the measure.
Opposition lawmakers reacted defiantly, calling on Venezuelans and foreign diplomats to join them for a special legislative session yesterday in which they would repudiate the ruling party’s latest effort to monopolize power.
“The constructional assembly and all its acts are illegal and unconstitutional,” Venezuelan Congress President Julio Borges said on Twitter. “This decision won’t be accepted by the National Assembly, the international community or the people.”
Government opponents had been warning that the Assembly would move to squash dissent following an election for its members last month that was boycotted by the opposition and criticized by many foreign governments.
In the past few days Venezuelans have watched as a steady parade of top officials, including Maduro, kneeled before the Assembly charged with rewriting the 1999 constitution and recognized it as the country’s supreme authority.
Borges and leaders of Congress were summoned to do the same on Friday.
However, in a public letter, all 109 opposition lawmakers refused to subordinate themselves to a body they consider a betrayal of the 14 million voters who took part in 2015 parliamentary elections that gave Maduro’s critics their first toehold on power in almost two decades of socialist rule.
“One day when we are free in the future, we will remember proudly the battles today that unite us and will be the foundation for the democracy we will build together,” the lawmakers said in the letter.
One opposition leader compared what he considers the trampling of Venezuela’s constitution to this week’s attack on pedestrians in Barcelona, while Luis Almagro, the head of the Organization of American States, denounced the “fraudulent dissolving” of Congress as another step in Maduro’s ongoing “coup.”
Since the Constitutional Assembly convened two weeks ago, Maduro has moved swiftly to jail opposition mayors and neutralize an outspoken critic from within his leftist ranks: chief prosecutor Luisa Ortega.
A long-time loyalist who still reveres former Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, Ortega broke with Maduro in April and ever since has worked tirelessly to undermine his rule.
In retaliation, she was removed from office by the Constitutional Assembly, barred from leaving the country and went into hiding after an arrest order was issued for her husband.
She re-emerged on Friday via Internet from an undisclosed location to address a meeting in Mexico of prosecutors from around Latin America.
She accused Maduro of removing her to try and thwart a probe linking the Venezuelan president and his inner circle to the almost US$100 million in bribes that Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht admitted to paying to Venezuelan officials in exchange for contracts.
Late on Friday evening, migration authorities in Colombia said Ortega and her husband, German Ferrer, arrived in Bogota aboard a private plane traveling from Aruba.
No immediate details were provided on whether the couple is seeking asylum, with officials only confirming that Ortega had completed the “corresponding migration process.”
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese