In a move on Wednesday that sparked outrage and international condemnation, the pro-Maduro Supreme Court in Venezuela annulled the duly-elected Congress, announcing that the Court would take over Congress’s legislative duties.
Today, the annulment was reversed, and the Venezuelan Congress has had its powers restored.
Venezuela’s pro-government Supreme Court on Saturday revoked its controversial annulment of the opposition-led Congress amid international condemnation and protests against socialist President Nicolas Maduro.Unprecedented pressure from other Latin American nations and dissent within its own ranks appear to have been the catalyst for the court’s reversal of its own Wednesday ruling.. . . . Although scores of dissidents have been detained during Maduro’s four-year rule and the National Assembly stripped of power anyway in practice, the court’s move was arguably the most explicitly anti-democratic measure.It galvanized Venezuela’s demoralized and divided opposition coalition and brought a torrent of international condemnation and concern ranging from the United Nations and European Union to most major Latin American countries.
Reuters also notes that the remaining opposition to Maduro (i.e. those not already imprisoned as dissidents) said he had become a dictator.
While Maduro, 54, sought to cast developments as the achievement of a statesman resolving a power conflict beneath him, his foes said it was a hypocritical row-back by an unpopular government that had overplayed its hand.”You can’t pretend to just normalize the nation after carrying out a ‘coup,'” said Julio Borges, leader of the legislature.He said the ruling had merely shown the world what Venezuelans already new – that Maduro had become a dictator.Having already shot down most congressional measures since the opposition won control in 2015, the Supreme Court went further with its Wednesday decision that it was taking over the legislature’s role because it was in “contempt” of the law.
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