International News

CARACAS, Oct 13 (APP/AFP): Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro can pass his 2017 budget without the approval of the opposition-majority legislature, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday, triggering an outcry from the leftist leader’s opponents. Maduro and the National Assembly have been at each other’s throats since the center-right opposition took control of the legislature in January, ending the left’s 17-year monopoly on power. Lawmakers accuse the president of stacking the Supreme Court with allies in the dying hours of the previous legislative session, then using the court to hamstring the new National Assembly. In the latest spat, the Supreme Court ruled Maduro — the political heir to late president Hugo Chavez (1999-2013) — can bypass the legislature and have the court itself ratify the budget as a decree. The court said the ruling aimed to “maintain the functioning of the state, the guarantee of fundamental rights and constitutional order.”