Venezuela-US row resumes over assembly powers

Venezuela rejected the latest US attacks on its constitutional reform body on Saturday as Western diplomats backed the opposition-held parliament.

In a communique, the Foreign Ministry hit back at a US State Department statement on Friday attacking the newly-elected National Constituent Assembly’s assumption of legislative powers.

Washington said: “This power grab is designed to supplant the democratically-elected National Assembly with an authoritarian committee operating above the law.”

It claimed the support of Venezuela’s neighbours in condemning the “illegitimate Constituent Assembly and its authoritarian directives.”

“We are prepared to bring the full weight of American economic and diplomatic power to bear” in support of the opposition, the statement said.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is a former CEO of transnational oil giant ExxonMobil, which has had a series of disputes with the venezuelan government over the past 10 years.

The Foreign Ministry rejected the “new act of intervention by the US,” calling the assembly the “legitimate representative of the original constituent power, stemming from the popular will of the Venezuelan people, in free and universal elections.”

It accused the US of seeking “excuses” to “continue advancing its expansionist plan of military aggression and intervention against our homeland” — after the recently-ended four months of putschist violence incited by the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) opposition.

And it denounced the “minority of countries conjured in the self-styled Lima Group, whose function is to justify the sorry history of the Monroe Doctrine” — viewing Latin America as Washington’s “back yard.”

“Law and not abusive force, or the threat of the use of force, must be the source of relations between our nations,” the Ministry concluded.

On August 11 US President Donald Trump explicitly threatened military action against against Venezuela for the first time after two decades of US regime-change efforts — prompting condemnation from across Latin America.

The MUD-controlled National Assembly held an emergency session on Saturday to condemn the constituent assembly’s challenge to its powers.

Deputy speaker Freddy Guevara, leader of the extremist Popular Will party, declared: “They will have to take us out with bullets” as he tore up a copy of Friday’s declaration.

US Embassy deputy chief of mission Brian Naranjo and ambassadors of Britain, the EU, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, Austria, Poland, the Netherlands, Argentina, Chile and Mexico also attended in support of the Mud.

Suspended attorney general Luisa Ortega, whose turncoat socialist party MP husband was accused last week of of running an extortion ring, fled to neighbouring Colombia on Friday.

The constituent assembly had already appointed former public protecter William Tarek Saab, who announced the extortion probe, in her place.

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Venezuela’s opposition declared “Zero Hour” in its putsch against the socialist government on Monday — emboldened by US support. Leaders of the Democratic Unity Roundtable (Mud) coalition gathered for the announcement of their takeover plan a day after their unauthorised referendum seeking a mandate for regime change. National Assembly vice-president and Popular Will (VP) acting leader Freddy Guevara said the Mud-controlled parliament would announce the results of the plebiscite on Tuesday. It asked voters to reject President Nicolas Maduro’s calling of a constitutional reform assembly demand the army support the opposition and back a “national unity government.” But before the announcement of the result Mr Guevara said the national Assembly would form a new government on Tuesday — a move beyond its constitutional powers — along with 1,020 local “Zero Hour committees.” He called a “national general strike” for Thursday while on Friday the assembly would again exceed its powe...

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