Venezuelan factions stake claims to power
CARACAS, Venezuela — Pro- and anti-government factions dug themselves further into their trenches Monday amid Venezuela’s deepening political crisis, with each side staking a claim to the powers granted them by dueling national assemblies.
The new chief prosecutor who replaced an outspoken government critic outlined plans for restructuring the Public Ministry, while the opposition-controlled National Assembly vowed to continue meeting at the stately legislative palace — a short walk across a plaza from where the all-powerful constitutional assembly is expected to hold its next meeting Tuesday.
National Assembly President Julio Borges told fellow lawmakers they should keep an active presence in the building despite threats from the new assembly to swiftly strip them of any authority and lock up key leaders. Borges called the building the “symbol of popular sovereignty.”
“We are a testament to the fight for democracy,” he said at a meeting cobbled together amid mounting uncertainty about the legislature’s future.
In theory, the National Assembly and the progovernment constitutional assembly can rule simultaneously, but the new super body created through a July 30 election that drew international condemnation has the authority to trump any other branch of government — and Venezuela’s leaders have promised to do that.
Since its installation Friday, the constitutional assembly has signaled it will act swiftly in response to President Nicolas Maduro’s commands, which have included calls to strip legislators of their immunity from prosecution.
Several hundred progovernment Venezuelans marched to the legislative palace, where opposition lawmakers were inside crafting a resolution disavowing the new assembly.
National Assembly members voted unanimously not to recognize any of the new superbody’s decisions, which include removing chief prosecutor Luisa Ortega Diaz and installing a “truth commission” that will wield unusual authority to prosecute and levy sentences.