CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) – President Nicolas Maduro first declared an economic emergency due to “catastrophic” inflation and growth figures and then endured the indignity of a nationally televised scolding from the head of a newly empowered opposition Congress.
Congress leader Henry Ramos wagged his finger inches from the president’s head in a state-of-the-nation rebuttal that was broadcast live across the South American country Friday – unprecedented media access for an opponent of the country’s socialist revolution.
Neither Maduro nor his predecessor, the late President Hugo Chavez, had ever contended with a hostile audience for a speech to Congress, but foes of the administration took control of the institution last week for the first time in 17 years, carried to victory on a wave of economic turmoil.
The government’s Central Bank, which had kept key economic indicators to itself for more than a year, dumped a batch of new bad news earlier in the day.
It said the country’s economy contracted by 7.1 percent during the quarter that ended in September 2015, and inflation reached 141.5 percent.