VenEconomy: Venezuela’s National Assembly Must Look into Maduro’s Economic Emergency Decree From the Editors of VenEconomy Latin American Herald Tribune January 19, 2016
Henry Ramos Allup, president of the National Assembly of Venezuela
Without discussion, the parliamentary majority of the Democratic Unity (MUD) opposition coalition, led by Henry Ramos Allup, has been the protagonist during the first week of the National Assembly in its 2016-2021 legislative period.
Since January 5, day of the installation of the new Parliament, the democratic parliamentarians had set the tone for their objectives: with a qualified majority obtained by the votes of 7.7 million Venezuelans, they came to restore the autonomy and role assigned by the Constitution to that national public authority. Nothing will stop them from fulfilling that mission.
Until now, they have been overcoming one by one the obstacles placed in their path by the national government to prevent the fulfillment of the mandate of change given by popular vote.
Last Friday, millions of Venezuelans, inside and outside the country, were watching in amazement through the media and Internet as Ramos Allup, after listening to the annual Report and Accounts of President Nicolás Maduro for three and a half hours, turned the House into a podium to shout out loud all the truths concealed by censorship and despotism for more than a decade.
He shouted them out one by one, debunking the well-worn, obsolete and outdated speech delivered by Maduro. He held nothing back. Not only he refuted the lies, but voiced many truths from various subjects.
To begin with, Ramos Allup claimed that the Executive and Legislative are the only two public powers legitimized by popular vote. The rest of them are appointed.
He taught Maduro lessons in economy, inflation and shortages; he noted that the price of the U.S. dollar is fixed by the market, not a web site. On top of that, he tore down the mystification of Hugo Chávez. He denied it was true that if the "eternal commander" lived today, the country would not be going through the current debacle. On the contrary, Ramos Allup stressed that if Chávez lived the situation would have been even worse, due to his messianic character and other negative features of the late President.
He talked about the right of private property and how this affected the population in general by not respecting it. And told Maduro in his face that the houses built by the Gran Misión Vivienda Venezuela program were not part of a residential complex of his own; these are for the people and built by the Government with public money.
He urged him to review the dire condition and horrendous figures of public companies, lands and expropriated properties managed by the State. And he hit the nail on the head by pointing out that the collapse of the economy was reflected in the need to import 70% of the food, capital goods, medicines and other items demanded by the country.
He spoke of the corruption destroying public life. He also spoke of the destruction of the companies of the Guayana region, including steelmaker SIDOR, which he was quoted as saying "it seems like the cyborg of the Terminator movie passed through here."
He reiterated that Maduro does have political prisoners and detailed the reasons why the victims of the violent events that took place in February 2014 across the country were produced by the security forces of the State, not the demonstrators.
Ramos Allup made it very clear that the collapse of the country is due to the failure of Venezuela’s current economic model, topped with the allegiance of the armed forces to the Bolivarian revolution: the National Armed Forces has no surname, must be apolitical and non-deliberative. A civilian cannot deliberate with an armed man. "The military belongs to all Venezuelans." And emphasized that his side doesn’t play overturning the Government: "There is no such thing as a good coup d’état."
That said, Ramos Allup and the 108 democratic lawmakers must now look into the new Economic Emergency Decree published in the Official Gazette last Thursday, one day before Maduro’s Report and Accounts. This is another obstacle they must overcome with intelligence and good timing, in order to scrutinize his administration as much as possible.
This decree would apply a state of emergency to put extreme limitations upon a wide range of rights and economic guarantees of Venezuelans. Moreover, it would hamper the legislative function and continue giving Maduro the power to squander the public money.
In a nutshell, it is an insult to the intelligence that would keep the country in the economic, political and social decline established in Chávez’s "Plan for the Homeland."
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