Top prosecutor rips power grab
CARACAS (AP) — Venezuela’s chief prosecutor broke with the government Friday and rebuked a Supreme Court decision stripping congress of its last vestiges of power, showing a crack in the embattled administration of socialist President Nicolas Maduro amid a torrent of international condemnation over what many decried as a major step toward dictatorship.
In a shocking pronouncement, longtime government loyalist Luisa Ortega Diaz said it was her “unavoidable historical duty” as the nation’s top judicial authority to denounce what she called a “rupture” of the constitutional order in the court ruling against the opposition-controlled National Assembly.
“We call for reflection so that the democratic path can be retaken,” she said to the loud applause of aides gathered around her.
The statement gave a major boost to the opposition, some of whom spent the day sparring with riot police and gearing up for what they hope will be nationwide protests today.
A defiant Maduro defended the Supreme Court in an appearance on state television and said the opposition would be left with “their cold champagne, uncorked.”
He also called for renewed dialogue between the government and opposition as the only way to resolve the political crisis.
“I’m ready with whoever is willing,” he said.
The Supreme Court ruled late Wednesday that as long as lawmakers remained in contempt of earlier court rulings that nullified all legislation passed by congress, the high court can assume the constitutionally assigned powers of the National Assembly, which has been controlled by the opposition for nearly a year and a half.
The United States and governments across Latin America condemned the ruling, which the head of the Organization of American States likened to a “self-inflicted coup” by the leftist Maduro. The United Nations’ top human-rights official expressed “grave concern” and called on the high court to reverse its decision.