Venezuela’s new ‘super power’ assembly fires dissident law chief
in New York VENEZUELA’S contested new assembly has fired Luisa Ortega, the country’s dissident attorney general, in a move certain to provoke international criticism.
The body made the sacking its first order of business yesterday as it announced plans to operate as Venezuela’s supreme power for up to two years.
Troops surrounded the attorney’s office as the assembly, derided by critics as an illegitimate entity, convened for the first time. Yesterday morning Ms Ortega tweeted a photo of soldiers outside her office, saying: “I reject this siege by the public ministry.”
She first became a lightning rod for government fury after she turned against President Nicolas Maduro, speaking out against what she saw as an erosion of democracy. On Thursday she filed legal proceedings to stop the constituent assembly sitting.
When she failed, Delcy Rodriguez, a former foreign minister and Maduro confidant who heads the assembly, said they would begin to punish opponents.
“Don’t think we’re going to wait weeks, months or years,” she said. “The violent fascists, those who wage economic war on the people, those who wage psychological war, justice is coming for you.” Before the assembly convened, Mr Maduro said it would be used to strip opposition politicians of their immunity, and described the body as “a super power”.
It will have sweeping abilities to upend institutions and rewrite the constitution and has received criticism from the Venezuelan opposition, the United States, and other countries which fear the assembly will be a tool for imposing a dictatorship.