Venezuela ruling party VP proposes early congress election

The vice president of Venezuela’s ruling Socialist Party on Tuesday proposed holding an early congressional election alongside the April 22 presidential vote, a move that could shorten the tenure of the currently opposition-run legislature. Venezuela’s opposition won control of the National Assembly in a 2015 landslide vote that was their biggest electoral victory in nearly two decades of socialist government. But President Nicolas Maduro and the pro-government judiciary rendered the congress toothless by striking down all its measures. Authorities held a controversial vote to set up instead a new all-powerful superbody Constituent Assembly, which a raft of foreign nations have refused to recognize. More…