Chávez’s little blue book

TIME was when Hugo Chávez was immensely proud of the new constitution he gave Venezuela in 1999, at the start of his 14 years of rule. He had it printed in a little blue book, and would hand out copies to everyone he met. Now the government of Chávez’s chosen successor, Nicolás Maduro, is tearing it up.

That process began after an election in December in which the opposition won control of the National Assembly with 7.7m votes (56% of the total). That is a bigger (and fresher) mandate than Mr Maduro’s own. The regime has illegally neutered the assembly. The supreme tribunal, packed with chavista puppets, threw out an amnesty law for political prisoners approved by the assembly, which has the constitutional right to grant one. The assembly has twice used its constitutional power to reject Mr Maduro’s decrees granting himself emergency powers. The president has pressed on regardless. “It’s a matter of time” before the assembly “disappears”, he said this month.