Venezuela’s New, Powerful Assembly Takes Over Legislature’s Duties

Venezuela’s new Constituent Assembly granted itself wide powers to write and pass legislation on Friday, a move that essentially nullifies the opposition-led legislature and puts President Nicolás Maduro’s party firmly in control of the country.

In a decree, the assembly said it would “assume the ability to legislate over matters directly related to guaranteeing peace, security and sovereignty,” as well as a long list of other areas.

The move enables the Constituent Assembly to supersede the country’s legislature, the National Assembly, which has been led by opposition parties since last year and is the only branch of government not controlled by Mr. Maduro.

It is a decisive step in the quest by Mr. Maduro’s allies to dismantle the country’s legislature, an effort that began in March with an attempt to dissolve it using the court system and shifted last month to a vote to create the powerful Constituent Assembly, which could supplant the legislature.

“We are moving ahead for the fatherland,” Diosdado Cabello, a powerful assembly member, wrote on Twitter. He added that the move “crushes the thesis of a failed state” in Venezuela put forward by the country’s enemies.

The seizure of lawmaking powers on Friday is perhaps the most important move in a plan by Mr. Maduro to consolidate power for his party.

On July 30, he asked Venezuelans to choose from a list of party stalwarts to form the Constituent Assembly, a body that would rewrite the Constitution and govern Venezuela for up to two years while doing so. Venezuelans were not given the option to reject the body, and opposition politicians did not participate in the vote.

During the campaign, some top party members tried to tamp down fears of a power grab, saying the new assembly would not disband the legislature. But since the election, many party members have called for more drastic action, including imprisoning opposition lawmakers. On Friday, Julio Borges, the opposition lawmaker who leads the legislature, called the Constituent Assembly’s actions tantamount to a coup. Mr. Borges said the legislature would not recognize the decision and reiterated that lawmakers viewed the assembly as a “fraudulent” group.

In the wake of the July 30 vote, numerous countries including the United States, said they would not recognize the new assembly, either. Venezuela’s largest neighbors, Colombia and Brazil, have both said that Mr. Maduro now runs a dictatorship.

The legislature had struggled to conduct its business almost since the opposition took control of the chamber in early 2016. The country’s Supreme Court, controlled by allies of the president, nullified all pieces of major legislation it passed and stripped it of its budgetary oversight powers.

In March, when the Supreme Court ruled that it would strip the legislature of its lawmaking powers and write laws itself, the move provoked such an uproar that Mr. Maduro quickly reversed it.

The decree announced Friday accomplishes most of the same goals, but gives the lawmaking powers to the new assembly that is friendly to Mr. Maduro rather than to the court.

As the government tightened its grip, a prominent Maduro opponent, Luisa Ortega, who was recently removed as attorney general, fled the country, according to news reports.

The Associated Press, citing Colombian officials, said Ms. Ortega and her husband, Germán Ferrer, a lawmaker, had arrived in Bogotá. The couple’s home in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, was raided on Wednesday.

Article c/o NY Times