LatinNews Daily - 09 October 2020

* Venezuela’s constituent assembly (ANC) has approved the ‘anti-blockade law’ bill presented by the government led by Nicolás Maduro, which ANC president Diosdado Cabello – also vice-president of the ruling Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV) – says will provide Maduro with “legal tools to counteract, mitigate, and reduce” the impact of international economic sanctions. Rather than seeking to eliminate the sanctions, as the name suggests, the law enables Maduro to take action to keep the country’s economy afloat - including by “unapplying” legal regulations deemed “impossible or counterproductive”, without legislative approval – and absolves him of the responsibility to make these actions public. The most eye-catching provisions seem to pave the way for the further liberalisation of Venezuela’s oil sector; Maduro will be allowed to “modify the mechanisms of constitution, ownership, management, administration, and operation of public or mixed-ownership companies”, and to “authorise and implement measures that stimulate and favour the participation, management, … and operation of the national and international private sector in the development of the national economy”. According to Cabello, this law will remain in effect “until sanctions are lifted”.

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