On an early Thursday morning, March 30, Venezuelans were alerted to the news that their supreme court has stripped the powers of National Assembly and claim it for their own.
With the National Assembly dissolved and taken over by Supreme Court which is loyal to President, there is no longer political opposition. The Venezuelan government is completely ruled by one political party.
According to The New York Times, the Supreme Court said that the National Assembly were “in a situation of contempt” and during that time, the Supreme Court would step in, to “ensure that parliamentary powers were exercised directly by this chamber, or by the body that the chamber chooses.”
With the motion put into effect, it wasn’t long until the National Assembly and the Venezuelan citizens spoke out against the decision made by the Venezuelan Supreme Court.
According to CNN, Citizens, outraged, are out in the streets protesting while prominent opposition leaders are already calling the government of President Nicolás Maduro “a dictatorship.”
Venezuela’s Supreme Court takes power from Legislature https://t.co/1ocyTl4Gis pic.twitter.com/uJkOIMTPI9
— New York Times World (@nytimesworld) March 30, 2017
National Assembly President Julio Borges said on Thursday, “What this ruling means is that, for the first time, Nicolás Maduro has all the power to enact laws, assign contracts, incur foreign debt and persecute fellow Venezuelans.”
At the United Nations press briefing the day after, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, the High Commissioner for Human Rights made it clear that he was against the actions of the Venezuelan supreme court.
“I strongly urge the Supreme Court to reconsider its decision. The separation of powers is essential for democracy to function, and keeping democratic spaces open is essential to ensure human rights are protected,” Zeid said.
Zeid also made sure it was clear that this ruling not only undermines democracy, but it also undermines the human rights of Venezuelan citizens who had voted in the National Assembly themselves.
“Continued restrictions on the freedoms of movement, association, expression and peaceful protest are not only deeply worrying but counter-productive in an extremely polarised country suffering economic and social crises,” Zeid said.
Along with the UN, the U.S. State Department also spoke out against the actions of the Venezuelan Supreme Court, says Reuters. “This rupture of democratic and constitutional norms greatly damages Venezuela’s democratic institutions and denies the Venezuelan people the right to shape their country’s future through their elected representatives,” State Department acting spokesman Mark Toner said in a statement.
While addressing the Venezuelan people about the actions of the Supreme Court and their president, Borges showed how much he really thought by ripping up the ruling into multiple pieces.
UPDATE:
As of recently the Venezuelan Supreme Court has let go of legislative power and has reinstated it to the National Assembly. This is after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro called to annul the ruling to ‘maintain balance of powers.’
Venezuela's Supreme Court reverses ruling to strip Congress of its legislative powers https://t.co/mUKND9HREs pic.twitter.com/91K1fuFN5m
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) April 1, 2017
Al Jazeera’s Alessandro Rampietti, reporting from Cucuta on the Venezuela-Colombia border, said: “Maduro was trying to cast himself as a statesman, trying to resolve a power conflict in the country, but the opposition says he was just rolling back after there were so many protests inside the country and internationally for a decision that was seen as crossing a line and changing the constitution.”