Venezuela is sailing into dangerous constitutional waters. After two decades in power, the socialists have lost control of the National Assembly to the center-right Mesa de la Unidad Democratica (MUD). So great was the socialist defeat that MUD now has a so-called "supermajority" which empowers it to use its position in the assembly to challenge the powers of socialist president Nicolas Maduro. The problem is that the socialists have challenged four results from the December 6 general election, saying that there were irregularities in the voting for three MUD legislators and another MP whose party is actually allied to the socialists. Following this challenge, the country's Supreme Court froze the result. The three MUD suspensions just happened to rob it of its "supermajority". The MUD-dominated National Assembly has refused to recognize the ruling and gone ahead and sworn in the disputed members. It is now talking of using its "supermajority" to fire the Supreme Court judges, all of whom were appointed either by the late president Hugo Chavez or his successor Maduro. All are considered to be dyed-in-the-wool socialists. The Supreme Court has responded by declaring that all decisions of the National Assembly will be void until the banned members are removed. MUD are protesting that the judges are seeking to flout the will of the electorate. Neither side appears prepared to give ground. The risk must be growing of a repeat of the street violence of 2014. Yet on the face of it, there is a relatively simple way out of the impasse. The disputed votes must be checked independently. Moreover, in an election where outside observers said it was clear the ruling socialists were probably guilty of irregularities, there are surely also socialist victories that deserve closer scrutiny. There is a widespread assumption that the ruling socialists are not going to go quietly. The economy is in ruins partly through the charismatic Chavez's deliberate wealth redistribution to his mass of poor supporters. The problem with this hugely popular measure was that it was unsustainable, probably even with strong economic performance. Unfortunately, 20 years of doctrinaire socialism has brought the country to its financial knees. Poverty, inflation and market chaos, spurred by collapsing oil revenues, were the reason so many voters deserted the socialists and backed MUD. Maduro and his people are blaming the United States and a wider capitalist conspiracy. Unprepared to take the blame for the economic mess, they seem equally unready to accept the verdict of the people. What is essential is that both sides keep dealing with each other and rub out the red lines that each has drawn. Compromise has to be found, if for no better reason than to avoid the power struggle taking to the streets. Die-hard regime supporters are known to believe that the army should be used to crush the opposition while among anti-government groups there are those who are certain that change can only come through armed confrontation. Neither extremist point of view should be allowed to prevail. The economy is already in ruins. But that can be fixed fairly quickly with hard-headed policies, better organization and tighter management, not least in the key hydrocarbon sector. By contrast, the wounds from violent civil strife would take far longer to heal.
