Venezuela ministers shun hearing on economic crisis

[FBaggins]

Venezuelan government ministers refused Thursday to go before their opposition rivals for a key legislative hearing on economic emergency measures in the crisis-hit nation, officials said.

The opposition-controlled National Assembly is due by Friday to vote on a bid by President Nicolas Maduro to decree a state of economic emergency in the oil-rich South American state.

His economic ministers were set to defend the measures in the assembly, but pulled out in the last minute saying they would only participate if it was closed to the media, said the opposition speaker of the congress, Henry Ramos Allup.

He said that Vice-President Aristobulo Isturiz told him "they would not come to this afternoon's session where they were to answer written questions from members of a special commission, if the session was public with media present."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/venezuela-ministers-shun-hearing-economic-crisis-235334643.html

You can't live with the disinfectant of sunshine if you're the pathogenic organisms that need disinfecting.

[Bacchus4.0]

1. +1 nt

[Marksman_91]

2. I don't know if you read Caracas Chronicles...

They're probably the best English-language blog site that deals with Venezuela. They just released this article today: http://caracaschronicles.com/2016/01/22/decree/

Chavismo Forfeits the Fight Over the Economic Emergency Decree

Friday morning, for the first time, the New Majority in the National Assembly asserted its institutional power, refusing to pass Maduro’s half-baked Economic Emergency Decree.

It’s no surprise. The measure, released last week just ahead of the Memoria y Cuenta address, was never seriously meant to be passed. It was strewn with poison-pill clauses: measures that chavismo couldn’t fail to see would doom its chances of passage by an opposition-controlled AN. They included several enabling law-like clauses that would have given Maduro even more control over the economy. Article #2, for example, would have stripped the AN of any influence over public spending, writing Maduro a blank check for dealing with the economy. Article #4 would have enabled the central bank (now controlled by Maduro) to regulate bank accounts with an Argentina-style corralito.

Coupled with the president’s existing powers, passing the decree would have had dangerous repercussions for Venezuela’s troubled democracy. Or, as Ismael Garcia called it, “como darle al mono una hojilla”.

Worse, the proposal failed to coherently address any economic issues. At most, it insinuated a boost in national production, without a logical causal argument behind it. Heck, it didn’t even make any noises in the direction of protecting social spending.

In essence, the "emergency" package, if approved, would've another rule-by-decree grant to Manuro (as if the last 2 years of him ruling by decree weren't bad enough to mess up even further the economy.) The PSUV leadership just keeps digging its own grave.

[FBaggins]

3. I suspect that he knew they wouldn't pass it

He must know at this point that the nation is bankrupt and things will shortly get much worse... so he's desperate to get the assembly to take some action that he can claim is the real cause for the collapse. "If only they had sided with me and the people..." he'll lament.