CARACAS, (Reuters) – Venezuela’s opposition took control of Congress for the first time in 16 years yesteday in a rowdy session, setting up a power struggle with President Nicolas Maduro amid a worsening economic crisis.
The Democratic Unity coalition won a two-thirds majority in December’s legislative election by capitalizing on anger over a shrinking economy, soaring prices and chronic product shortages reminiscent of Soviet-bloc economies.
Maduro has dismissed the new assembly as “right-wing” and “bourgeois,” and accuses the opposition of preparing to roll back social programmes created by late socialist President Hugo Chavez.
Veteran opposition legislator Henry Ramos was elected the new head of Congress in a session in which the two sides chanted slogans at one another and traded charges of corruption and betrayal.
“What did we offer in our campaign? To recover the autonomy of the legislative branch,” said Ramos in his opening speech to Congress. “This has been the loudspeaker of the presidential palace, the echo chamber of the executive branch.”
