State of Emergency Decree

This week president Maduro decreed a new “State of Constitutional Exception and of Economic emergency” in order to, according to the Agencia Venezolana de Noticias, “protect the people from the constant attacks by the international right, allied with the axis of imperial power.”

“This new decree is to defeat the coup, the economic war, to socially stabilize our country and to face the current national and international threats against our country. (…) Venezuela is in this moment under international threat. Today (…) there was a conspiracy meeting against Venezuela (in which Colombian) ex-president Álvaro Uribe has asked for the intervention of international armies against Venezuela,” said Maduro.

The emergency decree has not yet been published and its details are unknown. However Maduro explained that it will extend for another 60 days the already existing economic emergency decree, only now the executive will have “wider political powers.”

According to REUTERS, U.S. intelligence officials warned this week that “one ‘plausible’ scenario would be that Maduro’s own party or powerful political figures would force him out and would not rule out the possibility of a military coup. Still, they said there was no evidence of any active plotting or that he had lost support from the country’s generals.”

But REUTERS also quotes the official's concern about accusations by the Venezuelan government of U.S.-aided conspiracies against the country: “The officials appeared to acknowledge that Washington has little leverage in how the situation unfolds in Venezuela, where any U.S. role draws government accusations of U.S.-aided conspiracies. Instead, the administration of President Barack Obama wants "regional" efforts to help keep the country from sliding into chaos.”