Venezuela lawmakers trade blame for Congress brawl

CARACAS -- Political tensions that have boiled steadily in Venezuela since last month’s presidential election exploded on the floor of Congress, with lawmakers slugging it out in a brawl that left several injured.

Pro- and anti-government legislators blamed each other for the fight that erupted Tuesday night after the head of the Congress, Diosdado Cabello, refused to give opposition members a turn to speak unless they first recognized the election of leftist President Nicolas Maduro.

Maduro won a narrow victory last month over opposition candidate Henrique Capriles to replace the late Hugo Chavez, according to official results. But the opposition disputes the outcome and is waiting for a recount to conclude.

One opposition congressman, Americo de Grazzia, ended up in the hospital after someone pushed him down a flight of stairs Tuesday, knocking him out.

“The blows against Venezuela do not hurt me,” declared opposition congresswoman Maria Corina Machado, her face badly bruised. “Physical blows only give me more strength to fight on for a better future.”

Though the opposition members of Congress clearly got the worst of it -- at least nine injured, compared with three pro-government legislators -- Maduro’s supporters blamed their opponents for the brawl.

“They arrived to create disorder,” Cabello said. “Opposition violence was inevitable.”

Maduro went on national television to condemn the fighting and said Cabello would take “measures of authority and discipline” to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

The session began after a three-hour delay because Cabello refused to allow opposition members to enter the building. Once inside, the opposition legislators took their seats, but found that Cabello refused to let them speak. In response, they whistled, shouted catcalls and hung a banner saying parliament had suffered a “golpe,” a word that can mean both “blow” and “coup.”

“Our conscience will not be subjected to a test,” said opposition congressman Julio Borges, sporting a black eye and alluding to Cabello’s demand that his side of the aisle recognize Maduro. “They can beat us, put us in jail, kill us, but our principles are not for sale.”

Maduro, Chavez’s handpicked heir, was sworn in five days after the April 14 poll, even though pro-government election officials eventually agreed to the opposition demand for a recount. That is expected to conclude later this month.

But the opposition has questioned the reliability of the recount. On Wednesday, Capriles announced that he would file a formal legal challenge with the Venezuelan Supreme Court on Thursday. He said that he planned to exhaust all avenues of recourse in Venezuela in the hope of eventually obtaining some form of international arbitration.

Meanwhile, pro- and anti-government forces planned competing marches Wednesday in different parts of the capital, Caracas, to mark international Labor Day.

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Times Staff Writer Tracy Wilkinson in Mexico City contributed to this report.