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After Crackdown on Protesters, Venezuela's Opposition Slams Judges for 'Coup' Attempt

By Emily Tamkin

"The [Supreme Court] tried to get the legislature out of the mix...When they find their laws inconvenient, they just change them," says AS/COA's Eric Farnsworth.

On Wednesday, Venezuela’s opposition censured the country’s Supreme Court judges whom they accused of carrying out a veiled coup on behalf of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

Last week, Venezuela’s Supreme Court sought to assume the functions of the National Assembly, seen by many as the last stronghold of the Venezuelan opposition. Members of the opposition denounced the move as a coup; protesters took to the streets of Caracas; and even the attorney general, a long time ally of Maduro, criticized the ruling on live, state-controlled television.

Why make the ruling in the first place? Because, as Harold Trinkunas, a nonresident senior fellow with the Brookings Institute, explained to Foreign Policy, the Venezuelan government has a bond payment due April 12. And in order to make that bond payment, the government was hoping to strike a deal. Speculation says that that deal would be with Russian oil company Rosneft, under which Caracas would cede some assets — in Venezuela — to the Russian energy giant in lieu of cash payment….

“They tried to get the legislature out of the mix and just take unilateral action. When they find their laws inconvenient, they just change them,” Eric Farnsworth of the Americas Society/Council of the Americas said. But it went too far, apparently, even for Maduro.

On Saturday, the court reversed (much of) the ruling. “The controversy is over,” Maduro said.

Except it wasn’t….

Read the full article here.

 

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