( CNN) In a surprising move the Venezuelan opposition is calling a coup, the Venezuelan Supreme Court has stripped the country’s National Assembly of its powers. The tribunal ruled that all powers vested under the legislative body is likely to be transferred to the State supreme court, which is stacked with government loyalists.
The ruling effectively signifies the three branches of the Venezuelan government will be controlled by the ruling United Socialist Party. The opposition has been taken out of the picture.
Prominent opposition leaders are already calling the governmental forces of President Nicols Maduro “a dictatorship.”