CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) – Venezuela’s Congress on Sunday declared that the government had staged a coup in a raucous session that was interrupted when supporters of the socialist administration stormed into the chamber.
Lawmakers vowed to put President Nicolas Maduro on trial after a court friendly to his administration on Thursday blocked the opposition’s campaign to recall the deeply-unpopular president.
Lawmaker Julio Borges said the opposition-held congress is now in open rebellion against the government.
A day of fiery speeches was briefly thrown into chaos in the afternoon when dozens of red-shirted protesters who had been heckling lawmakers outside the capitol since the morning burst onto the floor. Lawmakers ran out of the path of protesters who chanted: “Congress will fall!”
It was not immediately clear how the protesters entered the heavily guarded building, which has been under the opposition’s control since Maduro’s critics won a landslide legislative election in December. The protesters began to file out of the building after Socialist party leader Jorge Rodriguez called on them to leave, leading the opposition to charge that Rodriguez was directing the protest.