Caracas, Venezuela – On Thursday, the country’s Supreme Court announced its approval for President Nicolás Maduro’s economic emergency executive order, which provides him executive wide-ranging powers that include oversight of the Venezuelan budget, public and private production as well as distribution of essential goods. The institution is publicly known to be a blindly government’s supporter.
Maduro presented the decree to the National Assembly on January 15, but the legislative power, where the opposition has the majority in, rejected the proposal on January 22 arguing that the country’s needs rely on structural reforms and not on more controls, as reported by Bloomberg.
The Supreme Court’s ruling was published Thursday night online as Maduro held declarations on national television. The Justices said that congress did not follow the necessary procedures required by law to overturn the proposal. Maduro reacted positively to the ruling and said now that the decree was valid, he will announce some economic measures in the upcoming days.
The ruling is defined as a “Government Coup” by National Assembly president, Henry Ramos Allup. “Do not think that we are going to stand around with our arms crossed in the face of this coup from the government,” Ramos Allup said Friday at a press conference in Caracas.
Ramos Allup added that Maduro’s government is in its terminal phase and that they are trying to stop congress because it is serving its functions, referring to the previous congress where the government’s party had a majority and approved every law they proposed.
Ramos Allup made calls for a peaceful and constitutional change in government, but the congress’s president added that the institution would announce its plan to seek Maduro’s departure from office very soon.
While disputes over economic decision are made, Venezuela faces the highest triple-digit inflation in the world. The country is currently under shortages of basic foods that the government said is due to a campaign waged by his political opponents and the U.S to destabilize the country with an “economic war”.
Opposition disagrees with the so-called “economic war” and blames the government’s incompetence to manage the country’s affairs and the nearly two decades worth of socialist controls that started with the deceased president Hugo Chávez.
Source: Bloomberg