Venezuelan Court Approves Extension of Emergency Decree

On Friday, the Venezuelan Supreme Court approved a 60-day extension of the decree of economic emergency issued by President Nicolas Maduro. The court also declared the decree constitutional after the opposition-dominated Congress rejected the order. The regulation, which has ruled since January, grants the executive branch the power to enact special measures to address the spiraling economic situation.  

The president’s decree points to a “structural crisis of the economic model due to the abrupt fall in oil prices” and to the supposed “economic and financial boycott carried out by national and international actors against Venezuela.” Falling oil prices have contributed to inflation rates of 180 percent and sweeping shortages in two-thirds of food and medicine products, Panorama reports.

In February, Maduro devalued the bolívar currency and raised gasoline prices, but according to Bloomberg Business, the measures have failed to halt declining government revenues and soaring inflation. Members of the Venezuelan opposition have expressed that the “solution to the grave problems that affect the Venezuelan economy is not the granting of exorbitant powers to a government that already has an enormous concentration of powers, but a profound reformation of the economic policies that have been in place.”

Since parliamentary elections last December, tensions between the government’s judicial and executive branches on one side and the new opposition-controlled legislature on the other have escalated. The strain has contributed to pronounced institutional inefficiencies. Just two weeks ago, the Supreme Court revoked the National Assembly’s power to act as a comptroller, inhibiting Congress from supervising the quality of accounting and financial reporting of the executive and judicial branches, as well as the military. The National Assembly responded by requesting that the Organization of American States invoke the Inter-American Democratic Charter, which would compel the Venezuelan government to meet democratic standards. Amid widespread economic distress, the tensions between the government’s branches threaten to deepen the crisis. To resolve the situation, the President of the National Assembly, Henry Ramos Allup, offered the following advice: “Let’s listen to the streets. While there are problems with food, water, and electricity, the Supreme Court wants to neutralize the National Assembly with a sentence; what needs to be done is to neutralize hunger.”