There’s nothing like a good legislative brawl to remind you that your own country isn’t all that bad yet.  Post-election tensions are blamed for fisticuffs in Venezuela’s National Assembly.

A motion by President Nicolas Maduro’s allies would have bared the opposition from legislative activities until they recognized Maduro as the winner of last month’s election; and the opposition would have nothing of that and protested.

And that’s where it degenerates into punches, accusations, counter punches, counter accusations.  Clearly winding up on the worst end of it was opposition lawmaker Julio Borges, whose bruised, bleeding face was prominently displayed on the evening news.

Meanwhile, the election at the heart of the unrest has become narrower.  Venezuela's electoral council has amended the final result of the 14 April presidential election to say that Nicolas Maduro won by 1.49 percentage points.  That’s fewer than 225 thousand votes and slimmer than earlier figures which claimed a 1.8 percentage victory.

Opposition candidate Enrique Capriles has demanded a full recount, which the council has rejected.