{"id":2879,"date":"2019-01-10T15:40:09","date_gmt":"2019-01-10T15:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/?p=2879"},"modified":"2019-01-10T15:40:09","modified_gmt":"2019-01-10T15:40:09","slug":"articles-for-before-break-venezuela-supreme-court-judge-christian-zerpa-flees-to-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/2019\/01\/10\/articles-for-before-break-venezuela-supreme-court-judge-christian-zerpa-flees-to-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Articles for Before Break: Venezuela Supreme Court judge Christian Zerpa flees to US"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Venezuela Supreme Court judge Christian Zerpa has fled to the US to protest over President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro&#8217;s second term in office.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last year&#8217;s election &#8220;was not free and competitive&#8221;, the former Maduro loyalist told a Florida radio station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And he accused President Maduro of systematically manipulating the affairs of the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In response, the court said Mr Zerpa was fleeing allegations of sexual harassment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Opposition parties boycotted the 2018 vote, calling it a sham.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-latin-america-36319877\"><strong>Venezuela crisis: A country in freefall<\/strong><\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-latin-america-46524248\"><strong>Why Venezuela&#8217;s exodus is set to continue<\/strong><\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mr Zerpa had been a crucial ally for Mr Maduro on the court, writing a key legal opinion in 2016 justifying the president&#8217;s decision to strip congress of its powers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His ruling Socialist party had lost control of the legislature to the opposition in a landslide vote earlier that year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But in an interview with Miami broadcaster EVTV on Sunday, Mr Zerpa called the Supreme Court &#8220;an appendage of the executive branch&#8221;, saying the president would tell justices how to rule on certain cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He said he had not publicly criticised the 2018 election result to ensure he and his family could safely flee to the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mr Maduro is due to be formally inaugurated to a second term on 10 January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-latin-america-44204632\"><strong>Fourteen countries recalled their ambassadors from Caracas in protest<\/strong><\/a> at the result of the vote last May, and the US imposed fresh economic sanctions on the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Before the election even took place, the United States, Canada, the European Union and a dozen Latin American countries said they would not recognise the results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-latin-america-45338769\"><strong>Brazil to send troops to Venezuela border<\/strong><\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-latin-america-46513571\"><strong>Goodyear Venezuela staff get tyre severance<\/strong><\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The opposition had boycotted the poll while the government barred many others from taking part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Millions of people have fled Venezuela in recent years amid skyrocketing inflation and chronic food shortages.<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Venezuela Supreme Court judge Christian Zerpa has fled to the US to protest over President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro&#8217;s second term in office. Last year&#8217;s election &#8220;was not free and competitive&#8221;, the former Maduro loyalist told a Florida radio station. And he accused President Maduro of systematically manipulating the affairs of the Supreme Court. In response, the court said Mr Zerpa was&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/2019\/01\/10\/articles-for-before-break-venezuela-supreme-court-judge-christian-zerpa-flees-to-us\/\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2879"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2880,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2879\/revisions\/2880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}