Posted on behalf of Anna Petherick.

Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, has vetoed a new law that would change the way universities in the country are run.

Approved by the Venezuelan National Assembly after 3am on 23 December—and supported by his own party—the ‘University Law’ would have seen university budgets and administration fall under the control of ‘communal councils’ made up of local citizens (see Chávez squeezes scientific freedom). Hours after the assembly passed the law, police used tear gas to break up demonstrators at the entrance of the Central University of Venezuela (UCV), in Caracas. Since then, protests have continued.

The law will be now sent back to the National Assembly for review. President Chávez has promised a committee-run “large national debate” on the issue, which will include all major stakeholders. The composition of this committee has yet to be revealed and will be closely watched by the research community in Venezuela—about 70% of whom support the opposition, according to Orlando Albornoz, a sociologist at UCV. A ”https://www.el-nacional.com/www/site/p_contenido.php?q=nodo/174839/Nación/Estudiantes-debatirán-sobre-Ley-de-Universidades-el-10-de-enero">debate on the law is planned at UCV for 10 January.

The University Law was part of a suite of new legislation that was introduced to the Venezuelan National Assembly between elections on 26 September – when Chávez’s party lost the crucial two-thirds majority required to seamlessly pass laws – and 5 January, when the newly elected Assembly took its seats.