IQUITOS, Peru — Venezuela’s Supreme Court on Saturday reversed parts of a decision to strip the national legislature of its powers, an abrupt shift that came amid mounting domestic and international criticism that the country was edging toward dictatorship.
“The decisions of the court have not divested the Parliament of its powers,” Maikel Moreno, the court’s chief judge, said in an address on Saturday afternoon. He said the Supreme Court should not be in conflict with other branches of government “because it is only an arbiter.”
The state television network VTV on Saturday published summaries of the court’s most recent rulings in which the judges said they had “suppressed” parts of an earlier decision to nullify the legislature and allow the court to write laws itself. Judge Moreno said the court had also reversed a decision to strip lawmakers of their immunity from prosecution.
