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Opposition leaders call for protest against Maduro's Enabling Law

The Venezuelan president announces plans to use new decree powers to approve the first two laws this Thursday

Capriles calls on Venezuelans to join demonstration.
Capriles calls on Venezuelans to join demonstration.MIGUEL GUTIÉRREZ (EFE)

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro will take his first steps as lawmaker this Thursday, according to a message on his Twitter account. On Wednesday the state's Official Gazette published the text of the law known as "Ley Habilitante" or Enabling Act that will allow him to rule by decree for one year without having to go through Parliament. It was a necessary formality in the fight against what the government has called "the economic war," which consists of prices rising in tandem with the rate of inflation while the country faces overwhelming demand and scarce supply. This situation, fairly common in Venezuela by now due to its macroeconomic conditions, has been met with an unprecedented response: a raid of the entire cabinet to confiscate and sell off high-priced imported goods purchased with private capital.

The Enabling Act will reinforce the field work that the government has been doing for the last two weeks,s Maduro called for emptying the shelves of the domestic electronic goods chain, Daka by promising a substantial price cut on its products.

Every day there is a new episode on the government's official TV channel. This Wednesday, for example, Vice President Jorge Arreaza announced that six businessmen were detained on charges of "high level usury."

Meanwhile, Major General Hebert García Plaza, director of the High Commission for the People's Defense of the Economy, met with the owners of the largest chain of shopping malls in the country, Constructora Sambil, to find out how they decide the rents for commercial establishments.

The conclusion is always the same: the costs are too high and must be regulated. Maduro's government is eager to recognize its own work. It is, according to its representatives, fighting a battle against the big businessmen who steal from the state and its people.

The soundbite of the day comes from Carlos Flores, the 99th deputy, the man who made it possible for the president to become a lawmaker. "I am a chavista, a revolutionary and I am committed to this country," Flores said on a morning program on state TV. "No one can buy me or intimidate me. My political duty is to be where the country needs me and on the side of whatever benefits the Venezuelan people."

The government does not take any responsibility for the rising rate of inflation. This year it has climbed to 54.3 percent, more than twice the highest rate in 2012. And, the scarcity index has hit 22.3 percent. The executive office blames high prices on the private sector who charges them.

The opposition made similar observations in a press conference this week. The Mesa de la Unidad or Unity Table leaders also delivered remarks on the concession of temporary special powers to Maduro. The governor of Miranda and opposition leader Henrique Capriles called for a nationwide demonstration.

It will be relatively easy to bring large crowds together. On next Sunday, December 8, the country will hold elections for mayors and municipal offices. All the candidates are beating down the campaign trail at the moment. "They could ask for a thousand enabling laws, but a law cannot bring about ability," Capriles said. "Inability cannot be solved by law. Milk, paper, chicken and meat are not going to appear out of nowhere."

That the opposition is rallying for demonstrations is a telling sign. It hasn't held large scale protests since April when its supporters obeyed Capriles' call to lock up and stay home in a boycott against the contested results of the last presidential elections.

The opposition intended to draw a clear distinction between the judicial corruption that in their view is enshrined in chavismo and the stance of the deputies in the opposition parties who, according to Capriles, did not give in or switch sides when pressed to approve Maduro's proposal for special powers. "We feel a great responsibility in the face of what is happening here in the country," he told the press.

The chavistas took the stage to criticize the press conference and spin it in their favor. "Capriles calls for a 'don't mess with my speculators' march," said Diosdado Cabello, president of the National Assembly and number two in his party's leadership. Cabello was making a humorous reference to the 2001 protests against education reforms that the middle class held under the banner "Don't mess with my kids." Those rallies fed the insurgency that led to a coup against then-president, Hugo Chávez.

Maybe this is a sign that, in this country, nothing has changed.

Translation: Dyane Jean François

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