World

Venezuelan Power Usurped

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

August 30, 1999 / 4:14 PM EDT / CBS

Supporters of Venezuela's president stripped Congress of its last remaining powers on Monday, effectively shutting down the South American nation's legislature.

A constitutional assembly, which had already sharply limited Congress' duties last week, voted to usurp its few remaining powers, including the right to approve presidential trips abroad and budget outlays.

The assembly, which is dominated by supporters of President Hugo Chavez, said it took the action because Congress was interfering with the assembly's main work: writing a new constitution for Venezuela and reforming corruption-riddled public institutions.

Opposition lawmakers said it was a move by President Hugo Chavez, the leader of a failed 1992 coup attempt, to concentrate power in his hands. They warned he was putting in jeopardy one of Latin America's oldest democracies.

By declaring a "legislative emergency" last week, the assembly prohibited Congress from passing laws or even convening as a full body. The assembly also gave itself sweeping powers to fire judges and overhaul the justice system.

While the assembly debated stripping the remaining powers Monday, several dozen Chavez supporters gathered outside with a large banner that read "Shut down Congress" and "Kick out the corrupt!"

Congress Vice President Henrique Capriles filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court on Monday, saying the assembly's moves against Congress were illegal. But the court's powers have also been sharply curtailed by the assembly, so it was not clear if such a suit would have any impact.

The assembly's move last week prompted opposition lawmakers Friday to climb over the fence outside the Capitol to try to retake their chambers. Meanwhile, street fights had broken out between pro- and anti-Chavez factions and security forces fired tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons.

Chavez whose popularity remains around 70 percent says the assembly, elected in July with a mandate to create a new constitution within six months, is needed to end rampant corruption.

Despite sitting on the world's largest oil reserves outside the Middle East, more than half of Venezuela's 23 million people live in poverty.

In Washington, the State Department expressed growing concern about the standoff. Spokesman James Foley said the dispute has become an obstacle to the task of defining institutional change.

"We hope that all parties will come to agreement about how to exercise power during the tenure of the Constituent Assembly and to assure the establishment of a constitution that preserves Venezuela's long-standing democratic tradition," Foley said.

Chavez seemed to get a boost, however, from two U.S. congressmen on a fact-finding mission to Venezuela who said they thought the constitutional assembly was operating within the law.

"I think it all appears to be going constitutionally in spite of what the news media in the United States says," Rep. Cass Ballener, R-N.C., said Monday.

A U.S. official raised questions Monday about the legitimacy of the new Constitutional Assembly.

Kenneth MacKay, a special U.S. envoy to the Americas, said Washington was uncertain whether the assembly is acting as a democratic institution.

"I don't know the answer to that," MacKay told reporters in the Argentine capital after meeting with President Carlos Menem on trade issues. "Our concern is mainly that the dramatic reform taking place [in Venezuela] should occur within a democratic framework."

Last week the U.S. State Department expressed "deep concern" and urged Venezuela to maintain its separation of powers after the 131-member assembly assumed most of Congress' functions.