RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Opposition leader and self-appointed head of state Juan Guaidó was re-elected president of parliament by opposition members in a session outside the building in Caracas on Sunday.
Previously, police had denied Guaidó and other opposition representatives access to parliament, and Luis Parra, a political rival to Guaidó had declared himself the new president of parliament.
Guaidó was re-elected President of Parliament with the votes of 100 of its members and was sworn in. The meeting took place in a newspaper building. Inside the parliament building, however, Luis Parra had shortly before declared himself chairman of the National Assembly by megaphone, as footage on state television showed.
Invalid decisions?
Head of State Nicolás Maduro immediately expressed his support for Parra. The opposition, however, denounced a “parliamentary coup d’état”.
The US government then congratulated Guaidó. Guaidó was the “legitimate leader of the National Assembly and thus the legitimate interim president of Venezuela”, declared US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Parra’s self-proclamation as chairman of the National Assembly denounced the Guaidó camp as a “parliamentary coup”. Guaidó had tried to climb over the barricades around the parliament building. However, soldiers equipped with protective shields prevented the 36-year-old from doing so, as reporters observed.
Break with interim presidents
In the Parliament building, only the hands were raised for the vote on the Presidency of Parliament. The votes were not counted. Parra then declared himself elected.
Parra justified his claim to the chairmanship of parliament by saying that he was the oldest member of the National Assembly at 79 years of age. The parliamentarian, who is facing accusations of corruption, had broken with Guaidó only a month ago.
The National Assembly is the only representative body of the South American crisis state that has so far been in the hands of the opposition.
The opposition had won the parliamentary elections in December 2015. Shortly afterward, however, the Supreme Court, which is close to the government, withdrew recognition from the National Assembly and declared all its decisions invalid. Maduro then set up a constituent assembly loyal to him in 2017 to bypass the parliament.
Guaidó, in turn, appointed himself president at the beginning of 2019. More than 50 states, including the USA, recognize him as Venezuela’s head of state.