Who controls the Assembly?

June 8, 2003

While I am still skeptical that Chavez and his thugs from MVR have lost control of the National Assembly, the numbers suggest that they have. Local newspaper El Nacional reported yesterday that a total of 22 alternates showed up to be part of the quorum for the spurious session of the National Assembly in local park El Calvario. Given that they Chavistas claimed they had 94 Deputies, this implies that next week when the Assembly meets, if it ever does, Chavez’ MVR will only have 72 seats, far from the 80-plus majority needed. There are rumors of pressures, payoffs and threats against the Deputies who decided not to attend the session and that some of them may hold a press conference to describe them. Stay tuned; were Chavez to lose control of the Assembly, I believe Chavez will act in a forceful way to attempt to maintain his stronghold over the country.

This entry was posted on June 8, 2003 at 10:18 am and is filed under Venezuela.

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