Venezuela’s President Chastised by His Top Prosecutor
By NICHOLAS CASEYMARCH 31, 2017
IQUITOS, Peru — Venezuela’s attorney general on Friday condemned the decision by the country’s Supreme Court to seize power from the National
Assembly as "a rupture in the constitutional order" — a rare rebuke of President Nicolás Maduro from a top figure in his own government.
On Thursday, President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia joined the criticism, writing on Twitter: "I raise our voice of protest, in solidarity with democracy."
On Venezuela’s streets, however, public expressions of dissent remained relatively subdued, with the few scattered protests nothing out of the ordinary.
At a regularly scheduled news conference in Caracas, the attorney general, Luisa Ortega, said
that the ruling, which transferred all powers of the country’s National Assembly to the court, violated the inclusive spirit of the country’s laws.
But her criticism of the ruling exposed a rare fissure within the leftist movement led by Mr. Maduro, which
has mainly presented a united front as he has accumulated more and more power over the last year.
Although she is one of the country’s top law enforcement officials, it is unclear what ability
Ms. Ortega has to stop the court’s decision, given the growing authority of the president.
The court’s decision, issued late Wednesday night, has generated condemnation both within and outside of Venezuela
that the country has become a dictatorship in all but name.