[FRANCE24] In a dramatic week in Venezuela, the pro-government Supreme Court on Saturday revoked its controversial annulment of the opposition-led congress amid international condemnation and protests against President Nicolas Maduro."This controversy is over ... the constitution has won," Socialist Maduro said in a televised speech just after midnight local time to a specially convened state security committee that ordered the top court to reconsider its rulings.
The court said in a ruling published on its website that it was revoking a March 29 decision to take over legislative powers from the National Assembly, a move opponents had branded a "coup d'etat."
It also revoked an earlier ruling that stripped politicians of their immunity from prosecution and ended emergency security powers it had conferred on Maduro in the crisis.
The Supreme Court duly erased the two controversial judgments during the morning, the information minister said.
The U-turn is viewed by many as an effort to defuse growing anger, protests and ’coup’ claims that have spread like wildfire on social media.
The opposition said it was a hypocritical move by an unpopular government that overplayed its hand.
However,
we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by...
Maduro, 54, sought to cast it as a statesman-like move in resolving a conflict.
Coup!
"You can't pretend to just normalise the nation after carrying out a 'coup,'" said Julio Borges, leader of the National Assembly legislature. Borges publicly tore up the court rulings this week and refused to attend the security committee, which includes the heads of major institutions.
Having already shot down most congressional measures since the opposition won control in 2015, the pro-Maduro Supreme Court went further on Wednesday with a ruling it was taking over the legislature's functions because it was in "contempt" of the law.
That galvanised Venezuela's demoralised and divided opposition coalition and brought a torrent of international condemnation and concern ranging from the United Nations
...an idea whose time has gone...
and European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
to most major Latin American countries.
Flip-flop...
The Supreme Court's flip-flop may take the edge off protests, but Maduro's opponents at home and abroad will seek to maintain the pressure. They are furious that authorities thwarted a push for a referendum to recall Maduro last year and also postponed local elections scheduled for 2016.
Now they are calling for next year's presidential election to be brought forward and the delayed local polls to be held, confident the ruling Socialist Party will lose.
"It's time to mobilise!" student David Pernia, 29, said in western San Cristobal city, adding Venezuelans were fed up with autocratic rule and economic hardship. "Women don't have food for their children, people don't have medicines."
Foreign pressure
On Saturday, the National Assembly planned an open-air meeting in Caracas, while South America's UNASUR bloc was to meet in Argentina
...a country located on the other side of the Deep South. It is covered with Pampers and inhabited by Grouchos, who dance the Tangle. They used to have some islands called the Malvinas located where the Falklands are now. They're not supposed to cry for Evita...
with most of its members unhappy at Venezuela.
The hemispheric Organization of American States (OAS) had a special session slated for Monday in Washington.
Even before this week's events, OAS head Luis Almagro had been pushing for Venezuela's suspension, but he is unlikely to garner the two-thirds support needed in the 34-nation block despite hardening sentiment towards Maduro round the region.