CARACAS • A new assembly loyal to President Nicolas Maduro on Saturday fired attorney-general Luisa Ortega, one of the president's most vociferous critics, triggering a firestorm of condemnation from the US and Latin American nations.
Ms Ortega, who was barred by dozens of soldiers from entering her offices, has been a thorn in Mr Maduro's side for months, breaking ranks with him over the legality of the Constituent Assembly, which was elected a week ago in a vote marred by violence and fraud allegations.
She refused to recognise her sacking, or the assembly's swearing in of national ombudsman Tarek William Saab in her place.
"I am not giving up, Venezuela is not giving up and will not give up against barbarity, illegality, hunger, darkness and death," she said.
US State Department spokesman Heather Nauert tweeted that the "United States condemns (the) illegal removal" of Ms Ortega, adding that the move was aimed at tightening the "authoritarian dictatorship of (the) Maduro regime".
Colombia, Chile, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama and Peru equally slammed the decision, made by the Constituent Assembly as its very first order of business.
The assembly also said Ms Ortega would face trial for "irregularities" during her time in office and was forbidden from leaving the country.
One of the assembly's most prominent members, Mr Diosdado Cabello, said of the firing: "This is not a personal, political lynching, just carrying out the law."
Ms Ortega's sacking had been widely expected. But its swiftness - and the fact that it was a unanimous vote - stirred wide unease.
Also on Saturday, opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez was returned to house arrest after being detained in military prison for four days.
"They just moved Leopoldo home," his wife Lilian Tintori wrote on Twitter. "We continue with more conviction and strength for peace and freedom in Venezuela!"
Mr Lopez had been arrested along with another opposition leader Antonio Ledezma - who was released back to home detention on Friday - in the aftermath of the highly contested vote to create the assembly.
Mr Maduro and his Socialist party have "completely taken hostage" Venezuela's institutions through "an undemocratic mechanism that is utterly dictatorial", the leader of the opposition-controlled legislature, Mr Julio Borges, told reporters.
The opposition has vowed to maintain street protests against the assembly.
Four months of demonstrations violently matched by security forces have left at least 125 people dead. But the rallies have grown more muted as the assembly vowed to go after those seen as inciting street action.
As Ms Ortega's firing was announced, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Brazil declared Venezuela was indefinitely suspended from the South American trading bloc Mercosur for its "rupture of the democratic order". The office of the head of the Organisation of American States endorsed the suspension.
"The countries of the region ... must continue to tell the Venezuelan regime that in the Americas, there is no place for dictatorships or for the tyrants that lead them," it said in a statement.
The international onslaught added to US sanctions imposed on Mr Maduro after the Constituent Assembly's election.
Mr Maduro responded in an interview with an Argentine radio station that "Venezuela will not be taken out of Mercosur - never!"
He accused his Argentine counterpart, Mr Mauricio Macri, of trying to impose a "blockade" on Venezuela and US President Donald Trump of wanting to grab the country's vast oil reserves.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
