Venezuela Supreme Court rules opposition assembly’s extension ‘invalid’
Venezuela’s Supreme Court has ruled as “invalid” a move by the opposition-controlled parliament to extend its term for an additional year.
The ruling came days after US-backed opposition figure Juan Guaido, the former speaker of the so-called National Assembly, approved a statute extending its term into 2021.
The opposition-controlled parliament, which has been declared illegitimate by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government, tried to extend the assembly’s term after the ruling socialist party won a major score during the general vote earlier this month.
Guaido and his allies had boycotted the parliamentary election held on December 6, claiming it was not free and fair.
The Wednesday ruling stipulated that any action taken by current legislators “with the purpose of perpetuating, extending or continuing their status as National Assembly lawmakers” would be “lacking in judicial validity and effect.”
The move paves the way for Maduro’s political allies to take over the legislative body next month. The incumbent president has already censured the extension of the term of the small assembly of opposition legislators as “unconstitutional."
Guaido has repeatedly failed in his attempts to overthrow the legitimately-elected government of Maduro.
The opposition figure was the National Assembly speaker until January 2020 when his fellow lawmakers ousted him from his post. He was later stripped of his immunity.
Guaido, who accuses Maduro of dictatorship, stands accused of triggering a political crisis in Venezuela after unilaterally declaring himself “interim president” in January last year without running in any election.
He rejected the outcome of the May 2018 election, which Maduro had won, and later launched an abortive coup against the elected government.
Guaido has full support of the US, which has imposed several rounds of sanctions against the oil-rich South American country aimed at ousting Maduro.
Maduro says Washington's sanctions, which include the illegal confiscation of Venezuelan assets abroad and an economic blockade, have caused enormous suffering for millions of people in the Latin American country.
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