CARACAS: In a direct challenge to President Nicolas Maduro, a prominent Venezuelan opposition politician vowed to take her seat in the National Assembly Tuesday despite her ouster by the Supreme Court.
The head of the legislative body had ordered Maria Corina Machado expelled and her parliamentary immunity stripped last week after she tried to speak before the Organization of American States about her country's crisis.
"My right and my duty is to attend National Assembly meetings and I intend to do that as I always have," the 46-year-old said, calling on supporters to rally Tuesday in eastern Caracas.
Diosdado Cabello, the assembly's president and head of the ruling United Socialist Party, had contended that Machado had forfeited her seat when she was accredited to the Panamanian delegation to the OAS.
She attended a closed-door meeting of the OAS Permanent Council on March 21 but Venezuela maneuvered to block an open session on the situation in the country.
Venezuela broke off diplomatic relations with Panama on March 5. "She is not going to enter. She is not a deputy," Cabello said in response to Machado's vow to defy his order.
Maduro's leftist government has faced a wave of near-daily street protests since February 4, with the public venting anger over soaring crime, high inflation and shortages of essential goods. At least 39 people have died in the unrest.
Maduro, the heir to late president Hugo Chavez, has lashed out at the demonstrations, branding them a "fascist" US-backed plot to overthrow his government.
In the latest step in a crackdown on leaders of the protests, Machado's ouster was upheld by the country's Supreme Court late Monday. Machado's OAS appearance was "incompatible" with her function as an elected lawmaker, the court's constitutional panel said.
"This diplomatic function not only is to the detriment of the legislative function to which she was previously elected, but in frank contradiction with her duties as a Venezuelan and as a deputy of the National Assembly," it said.
Echoing Cabello, the court cited an article in the constitution that forbids members of the legislature to accept positions, honors or payments from foreign governments without the assembly's approval.
In stripping her of parliamentary immunity, Cabello said she could be arrested at any time "for all the things that have been happening."
While the protests appear to have ebbed somewhat in recent weeks, the government sent national guard troops and police into San Cristobal where the unrest first began to clear barricades from key avenues.
The city's opposition mayor, Daniel Ceballos, was sentenced last week to a year in prison by the Supreme Court for allegedly failing to take action to remove the barricades.
The government also arrested another opposition mayor last week on similar charges. A prominent opposition leader, Leopoldo Lopez, meanwhile has been in a military jail since February 18 on charges of inciting violence.
Machado and Lopez are both advocates of a strategy called "the exit" using street protests to pressure Maduro to resign.
Comments
Comments are closed.