Venezuelan Congress Accuses Maduro Government of Staging Coup

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/24/world/americas/venezuela-congress-nicolas-maduro.html

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CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela’s congress on Sunday declared that the government had staged a coup by blocking a drive to recall President Nicolás Maduro in a raucous legislative session that was interrupted when his supporters stormed the chamber.

Opposition lawmakers vowed to put Mr. Maduro on trial after a court friendly to his socialist administration on Thursday blocked their campaign to collect signatures to hold a referendum on removing him.

One lawmaker, Julio Borges, said the opposition-led congress was now in open rebellion after a majority of its members voted that the government had participated in a coup.

"We will bring a political trial against President Nicolás Maduro to get to the bottom of his role in the break with democracy and human rights here,” Mr. Borges said.

A day of fiery speeches was briefly thrown into chaos when dozens of redshirted protesters who had been heckling opposition lawmakers outside the Capitol burst onto the floor. Lawmakers ran out of the path of protesters, who chanted: “Congress will fall!”

It was not immediately clear how the protesters entered the heavily guarded building, which has been under the opposition’s control since it won a landslide victory in legislative elections in December. The protesters began to file out of the building after Jorge Rodríguez, the Socialist Party leader, called on them to leave, leading the opposition to charge that Mr. Rodríguez was directing the protest.

An opposition spokesman, Jesús Torrealba, said the protest on the floor was a perfect illustration of the opposition’s complaint that democracy had been suspended.

"The fact that lawmakers elected by 7.5 million people were silenced by 300 thugs sums up the situation better than any speech could,” he said.

Legislators also proposed efforts to replace national elections officials and Supreme Court judges.

Amid severe shortages and the world’s highest inflation, polls suggest that up to 80 percent of voters want Mr. Maduro out of office this year.

A push to take legal action against the president would push the country further into a constitutional crisis, but it would probably not prevail because the administration controls the courts and other major institutions.

The opposition is hobbled because it has been unable to make alliances with anyone in the ruling Socialist Party, according to Javier Corrales, a political-science professor at Amherst College.

"It’s important because in other constitutional crises elsewhere in Latin America, the behavior of the ruling party was crucial,” he said.

Last week’s court ruling, which suspended the recall vote because of what it called fraud in an earlier stage of signature collection, drew condemnation from the State Department and the Organization of American States.

On Sunday, Venezuela’s congress approved a resolution asking world leaders to step in to “protect the people’s right to democracy by any means necessary."

Opposition leaders are also pledging to build pressure in the streets, starting with a nationwide protest on Wednesday dubbed “the taking of Venezuela.”