CARACAS, Venezuela �� The Venezuelan Supreme Court Saturday reversed its decision to strip power from the opposition-led National Assembly, which critics said drove the nation to the brink of dictatorship.
President Nicolas Maduro announced the court's decision on state television. On Friday, the nation's top prosecutor, a Maduro ally, said the Supreme Court's initial decision was unconstitutional.
Maduro applauded Saturday's decision while warning regional leaders that he wouldn't accept any "meddling" in domestic affairs. He said he rejected "vulgar interventions" by foreign governments "that make demands on Venezuela while their countries are up in flames," an apparent reference to protesters in Paraguay setting that nation's congressional building on fire Friday night.
Ravaged by an economic depression and food shortages for years, Venezuela has been especially tense since the Supreme Court's ruling further stoked claims by the opposition and foreign countries that Maduro is moving the government toward one-man rule. Investors have dumped the government's bonds, and opposition leaders sought to capitalize on the chaos by calling on the military to "restore" constitutional order.
The Supreme Court's earlier decision was criticized by the U.S., Brazil, Colombia and Argentina, among others, and the Organization of American States. Washington-based OAS scheduled a meeting for Monday to review the events in Venezuela, convened at the request of more than a dozen member states.
The public rebuke by Luisa Ortega Diaz, the nation's top prosecutor, was perhaps the clearest sign yet that support is eroding for Maduro in his dominant socialist party that his mentor and predecessor, Hugo Chavez, assembled over the past two decades.
Foreign ministers from Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay, at an event in Buenos Aires, called on Venezuela to ensure the full separation of powers. Saturday's Supreme Court reversal came as a result of international pressure on Caracas, said Argentina's foreign minister, Susana Malcorra.
����
(Nathan Crooks contributed to this report.)
