New assembly fires attorney general
Targeting one of the most influential critics of President Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela’s new all-powerful assembly dismissed Attorney General Luisa Ortega on Saturday, following through on its threat to silence the government’s restive opposition.
In a scene that not long ago would have seemed inconceivable, Ortega fled her office straddling a motorcycle — squeezed between two bodyguards — after confronting security officers in riot gear. She was denied entry to the Public Ministry, which had been taken over by the Bolivarian National Guard.
“Liberty has been lost in this country,” a visibly shaken Ortega said.
Ortega, a onetime loyalist, became the first Maduro adversary felled by a new constituent assembly that was sworn in Friday after a suspicious election. Her appointed replacement, Tarek William Saab, the former public defender already under U.S. sanctions for abusing human rights, promised to pursue charges against the political leaders he blamed for months of street protests that turned deadly in clashes with government forces.
“We’re going to hold our heads up high and not allow any empire, no matter how much it tries, to drench this country in blood,” he said.
The Organization of American States, several countries in the region and opposition leaders condemned Ortega’s removal as illegal, arguing that only the rightful legislative power — the opposition-held National Assembly — could appoint or dismiss the attorney general.
That didn’t stop the Maduro-stacked Supreme Court — whose eight constitutional justices are also under U.S. sanctions — from granting a previously filed request to remove Ortega and ordering her to trial. The court barred Ortega from public office, froze her bank accounts and other assets, and banned any foreign travel. Maduro and his allies now control every public institution.
Calling the country’s political crisis “a difficult and dark time,” National Assembly President Julio Borges urged the military to step in to restore democratic order.
“To us, it’s very clear that all this government can turn to is violence and brute force,” he said. “The government is completely rotten.”
In its first session Saturday, the constituent assembly left no doubt that it plans to act like the government’s parallel legislative branch, usurping the role of the parliament known as the National Assembly. Though the assembly didn’t formally dissolve the parliament, it decided to take over the entire legislative palace — a move intended to keep the sitting parliament out. The assembly has been meeting in a room separate from the main parliamentary hall, where opposition lawmakers vowed to meet on Monday.
The assembly’s 545 delegates were elected last Sunday in a vote boycotted by the opposition and widely seen as fraudulent.
Ortega, who had tried to block the new assembly from its power grab, launched a criminal investigation into election supervisors Wednesday after Smartmatic, the company that provides the country with its voting machines and software, said it couldn’t stand by results the company said had been inflated by at least 1 million of a purported nearly 8.1 million votes. At least 10 people died on Election Day as the government fought off protests.
“Not only is there repression,” Ortega said Saturday. “Not only are they arbitrarily detaining people and making them face a military prosecutor. Now, they won’t let the attorney general get into its national headquarters!
“I fear for the country.
I fear for Venezuelans’ safety.”
She accused Maduro and his allies of trying to hide damning evidence against them, specifically when it comes to the far-reaching bribery scandal involving construction giant Odebrecht.
“You know what they want to accomplish with this?” Ortega said before making her motorcycle escape. “Hide Odebrecht evidence. Hide evidence of corruption in Venezuela. Evidence of human-rights abuses.”
In a statement published later — still on Public Ministry letterhead — Ortega remained defiant, saying she didn’t accept the court’s decision as it was “in violation of the constitution and the rule of law.”
“Venezuela is in the midst of a coup against the constitution, promoted by the Supreme Court and executive,” she said. “That’s the only word for what we’re experiencing and it should alarm the international community.”