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VENEZUELA HAS REJECTED accusations that a Supreme Court move to seize the powers of the opposition-majority legislature amounted to a coup, lashing out at its critics as “imperialists”.
International condemnation poured in after the high court’s decision on Wednesday, which effectively dissolved the legislature and tightened socialist President Nicolas Maduro’s grip on power.
The United States, the European Union, the head of the Organisation of American States (OAS) and a host of Latin American countries all condemned the move.
Venezuela accused its neighbours of being beholden to the United States, which Maduro accuses of plotting to oust him.
“Venezuela repudiates this onslaught by intolerant, right-wing and pro-imperialist governments in Latin America under the orders of the US State Department,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.
“It is false that there has been a coup d’etat in Venezuela. On the contrary, its institutions have adopted corrective legal measures to halt the deviant, coup-mongering actions of opposition lawmakers.”
Condemnation meanwhile continued to pile in today.
Colombia and Spain became the latest to oppose the court’s move, joining Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Peru, Chile and others.
Colombia recalled its ambassador to Venezuela, while Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy warned on Twitter that “when you break the division of powers, you break democracy.”
OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro called for the regional organization’s permanent council to hold crisis talks on the situation.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein also voiced “grave concern.”
“The separation of powers is essential for democracy to function, and keeping democratic spaces open is essential to ensure human rights are protected,” he said in a statement.
The plunging oil prices in late 2014, combined with a recession, crushed the Venezuelan economy. Inflation is out of control to the point that an iPhone 6 costs nearly $47,700 (€42,000) right now. The country is looking for allies outside of OPEC in hopes of stabilising its oil prices.
Food and electricity shortages have led to large demonstrations against Maduro in recent months. However, he has vowed to stay in power.
Last September, one of the rallies turned violent.
Police deployed in their hundreds to keep anti-government protesters angry at food and medicine shortages apart from Maduro’s supporters, who vowed to defend his “socialist revolution”.
The rallies raised fears of violence in the oil-rich South American state, where anti-government protests in 2014 led to clashes with police that left 43 people dead.
The leader of the opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable, Jesus Torrealba, told AFP it was the “biggest rally in recent decades” with “between 950,000 and 1.1 million people” taking part.
Demonstrators dressed in white marched in the east of the capital, yelling “Venezuela is hungry” and “This government is going to fall”.
Quite obvious now that North Korea were not behind the attack. Not that the US has ever relied on real evidence when it comes to throwing their weight around. Nobel Prize Obama – what a joke!
It was a trial run: next they will find evidence if WMD’s
The United States through its corrupt administration has now coined itself as the lying make believe false flag capital of the world.
http://constitutionclub.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/obama_lies1.jpg
Obama and the US shown to be fools again looking to pick a bar fight around the world regardless of the evidence.
Hey there Sony CEO boss, maybe you should spend more time fixing your crappy network security and less time spouting off about how many times your company has been compromised in the past 24 months on the news.
Seriously, if Sony spent as much time on security as they did PR they wouldn’t have these problems.
Some1 takes the blame and the Americans r still blaming north Korea typical Americans no evidence no proof and still trying for a fight. The only people coming out of this looking bad is the good old u.s again.
Baby you’re a firework
Do you ever feel like a plastic bag drifting through the wind?
Sony hackers are my new Heroes
There’s a lot to be said for the pill Glen when I read your pure drivel!
What is wrong with hacked movies ?? I would appreciate all comments on this question … Thank you if you take the time to answer
Just red thumbs but not a single reason as to why people shouldn’t watch illegal downloads ….
Its about the worst film you will ever see, only way to sell it was to fake a hack
It reminds me of all the BS surrounding that Michael Moore film Fahrenheit 9/11
There was nothing in that film that wasn’t public. The issue with that useless waste of space is he could of exposed certain cover ups but didn’t …
They certainly didn’t make a cent from me watching it.
It is very simple. In the not too distant future big money movies will simply not be made. Then everyone loses out, even you. Sure why would any company make a movie if they can’t make something out of it. Then the most creative among us would be left unemployed screen writers, actors and actress, writers and everyone else involved.
Well then Helen we will go back to reading books, enjoying the outdoors.
Don’t get me wrong I like a good flick but the Orwellian and brainwashing overtones are conditioning is to be violent useless eaters..
Helen Gallagher_ I am totally against down loading movies however when it comes to this type of blatant propaganda and war mongering my conscience would go straight out the window. BTW I watched it in a mates house and it was the greatest ball of crap that I have seen in a long time.
Helen with the amount of movie piracy through downloads over the last decade and longer with pirated vcr tapes previously hollywood has continually made big budget movies with no sign of slowing down or cutting budgets so i dont think we will have to worry about movie industry not making movies or not making money in the future. They will just keep updating their security and the hackers will break through those measures and then they will advance their security again and so on and so forth . The movie distribution business may evolve but as long as people want to watch big budget movies then big budget movies will be made
Hi I watched this movie just out of curiosity. It was a load of nonsense. Just as I had expected. There would not have been interest in The Interview only for the very fact that hacking Sony got it the media attention it would never get otherwise. This movie was pointless nonsense. We tell our children not to make fun of anyone.not even a bully. I just think this movie was such a waste of money. And I think Sony knew this too.
For a country who’s Internet randomly blacks out I doubt they could have hacked multi million euro protected servers in a large multinational company who has been fighting data breaches for years
I know North Korea is an isolated state but surely someone should tell Aul Kim there’s people called hair stylists!
Someone did once and now hes dead so no one will ever again
have your say