Venezuela Supreme Court says National Assembly is void

[Eugene]

Source: BBC

Venezuela's Supreme Court has ruled all actions of the opposition-held National Assembly are void until three banned members are removed from office.

The decision comes after the assembly swore in the three opposition members, who had been suspended by the court.

The court said the ruling applied to all acts that have been taken or will be taken by the current assembly.

The move is likely to escalate the political turmoil gripping the crisis-hit country.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]


Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-35287291

---

11 January 2016 Latin America & Caribbean

[Marksman_91]

1. Surprised at the silence regarding this item

Does anyone realize that the Chavista-controlled Supreme Court is effectively trying to dissolve the democratically elected parliament? Isn't that a sort of parliamentary coup?

[Archae]

2. I see the same pattern as is the usual in South America.

Maduro's cronies declare him "El Presidente for life," any dissenters will be "disappeared," and Maduro eventually gets overthrown in a military coup.

But, the "Maduro can do no wrong" phanbois will use examples from decades ago, to "prove" it's all the fault of the US/CIA/whatever.

Meanwhile things are just DANDY (/sarcasm) over in Zimbabwe, under Chavez's old buddy, Mugabe.

[Marksman_91]

3. Yep. Whenever a criminal government starts to lose control, it becomes more desperate

What's happening now in Venezuela is not unlike what Fujimori did in Peru, only this time, Maduro has no popularity. The current Supreme Court was actually assigned at the last minute by the Chavista National Assembly last December as one last desperate attempt to control one of the primary government institutions since they suffered a colossal loss at the National Assembly. Now the question is if those new magistrates (which have been demonstrated to have had close ties with the PSUV leadership) were even put there in a legitimate manner in the first place. It was very spur-of-the-moment the way it was done last month, and likely unconstitutional.

[happyslug]

4. All the Court is requiring is the Four legislators whose election are is question be excluded

Thus all the Majority has to do is tell those four legislators that they are excluded from the assembly till the court rules on their elections. This still gives the opposition to the Socialists a Majority, but not the supermajority needed to remove judges. Just follow the court ruling and see what happens next. The old saying, give someone enough rope to hang themselves.

Remember the Right wingers do NOT have the Presidency, thus you have a divided government. Thus there is NOT much they can do (and the newly elected Majority is a divided majority, they are united in they opposition to the Current President but other then that, they are a mix of right wingers and left wingers). Right now no one is advocating anything extra legal, the COurt is saying in cases where there are questions as to the validity of any election, anyone so elected can NOT take a seat UNTIL those issues are resolved.

Please note, this ruling affects FOUR legislators, including one legislator that supports the Current President. All are from the same region of Venezuela. It may be the reason for this Court Order is to keep the opposition from having its Super Majority, but it can also be that there are legitimate reasons to question the elections. Such disputes are handled at trials, where we can then see all of the evidence. We may disagree on what the Evidence Shows, but till then all we have is speculation and even in the US, if there is a question as to an election, no one takes office till those questions are resolved (Remember the 2008 Minnesota Senate Election? Al Franken did not take his seat till the following July, when the election dispute was finally settled)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_election_in_Minnesota,_2008

Sorry, this is the pattern in the US, if there is a disputed election, neither side take the seat till the issue is resolved in court and that includes any and all appeals. The same is the rest of the world. These four seats are in question and as such those questions must be resolved BEFORE anyone is seated in those elections.