Covered by the noise of the local election campaign, the news of the Venezuelan Supreme Court declaring that President Maduro could bypass the Assembly and present his own budget to be approved by them, went unnoticed. Basically, the Chavez-stacked Court (against what is clearly written in the Venezuelan constitution) has emasculated the Assembly that no longer was under the thumb of the government after the last elections gave the opposition a clear majority. For all intents and purposes, there is no longer a viable Assembly in Venezuela and finally all the power is concentrated in the Presidency.

The consequences did not wait to be seen. Yesterday a group of doctors at Hospital Central in Maracay (Aragua State) were protesting the lack of medicines and medical implements they need to treat 70 very ill children when a “Colectivo” (Chavista armed gang) appeared at the location and proceeded to impart a beat down on the protesters. A couple of days earlier, two doctors had been suspended for allowing members of a political party not aligned with the government to come into the hospital to donate much-needed medicines for the kids.

Venezuela is now allowing children to die as long as the political power is maintained and they will have no problems using raw power, starvation and sickness to maintain that power. The bodes are piling up and Venezuelans basically have no real recourse because they voted themselves out of freedom for a failed promise of security.

Our Election Day is just around the corner. The Supreme Court is up to be reshaped for a generation by the next president. The ball is in your court.