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National Assembly President Julio Borges rips Supreme Court documents ruling that it can take over responsibilities assigned to Congress

Ariana Cubillos / AP

MEXICO CITY, Mexico — Venezuela’s Supreme Court stripped the opposition-controlled Congress of its powers late Wednesday, taking over its legislative responsibilities and heightening tensions in the politically embattled country.

The decision is the second clash between the Supreme Court and Congress this week. As diplomats convened for a special meeting in Washington to discuss how to restore order in the South American country at the request of 18 members of the Organization of American States (OAS), the Venezuelan Supreme Court on Tuesday issued ruling curbing lawmakers’ immunity from prosecution.

“We are heading toward rock bottom at maximum speed,” opposition lawmaker Miguel Pizarro told BuzzFeed News. “The country is sitting atop a pressure cooker.”

The Supreme Court, which has consistently supported President Nicolás Maduro’s administration, said it would assume congressional duties for as long as the legislature remained “in contempt” of past court rulings. The ruling cited Congress’s reinstating last year of three opposition lawmakers who the Court had banned over vote-buying accusations. (None of the three legislators are currently seated in the legislature).

Opposition legislators called Wednesday’s ruling a “coup d’etat,” saying they disavowed it and would rebel against it by continuing to carry out their work.

The political escalation comes as Venezuela confronts widespread food and medicine shortages, triple-digit inflation, a security crisis in which homicide rates appear to have increased dramatically, and a series of corruption scandals enveloping the highest echelons of government.

Maduro has blamed the country’s downward spiral on a US-led attack meant to topple his left-wing administration.

Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump met with the wife of one of the country’s most high-profile political prisoners, Leopoldo López, and called on Maduro to release him “immediately.”

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer waved off a reporter who asked him during Thursday’s daily press briefing if he believed there was a coup d’etat underway in Venezuela, directing her to the State Department for comment. “The only Supreme Court I'm focused on right now is ours,” Spicer said, referring to the fight in the US Senate to confirm a new Supreme Court justice.

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The State Department did not immediately provide comment to BuzzFeed News.

Maduro has blocked several opposition-led initiatives in Congress, including a drive to recall his mandate, cutting short the euphoria that enveloped Venezuela in December 2015 when the socialist government lost its legislative majority for the first time in 16 years.

Concerns over Venezuela’s growing troubles has deepened within the international community. The OAS floated the idea of suspending the oil-rich nation from the group this week, but left-wing governments in the region opposed it.

“This completely takes out the rug from under the people who argue that in Venezuela there is a balance of powers and that there are checks and balances,” said Geoff Ramsey, a research associate at the Washington Office on Latin America.

This week, the Venezuelan Congress refused to authorize a joint venture between Venezuela’s state-owned oil company and privately-owned companies. Opposition leaders said Wednesday’s ruling was Maduro’s way of clearing the way for corrupt contracts, deepening the national debt, and holding off state elections that were due in December.

Hours after the Supreme Court’s ruling was made public, Congress President Julio Borges held up a printed copy of it above a podium. “I want to tell you clearly what this ruling means to us,” he said, tearing it into pieces.

“It’s trash. It’s trash from those who have kidnapped the Constitution.”

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