CARACAS: A new Venezuelan parliament will be sworn in Tuesday with President Nicolas Maduro’s party now in almost complete control and Western-backed opposition leader Juan Guaido out in the political cold.
Venezuelans have lived almost two years with both men laying claim to the presidency, with Maduro labeled a dictator and subject to Western sanctions and Guaido recognized as the country’s legitimate leader by the United States and more than 50 other nations.
Crucially, though, Maduro has retained the support of Venezuela’s powerful military and every branch of government that was able to exercise actual power.
Only the National Assembly, or congress, was beyond his grasp — until now.
Lawmakers carrying pictures of South American revolutionary hero Simon Bolivar and late socialist president Hugo Chavez arrived at the National Assembly building on Tuesday morning ahead of the swearing in ceremony.
Maduro allies won 256 of the 277 seats in the parliament after last month’s legislative elections were boycotted by the main opposition parties, led by Guaido.
This means that on Tuesday, Guaido will be out of his job as National Assembly speaker, losing the limited institutional legitimacy he had, and leaving foreign governments backing his claim to the presidency in a difficult position.
He remains defiant, though, since last month the outgoing parliament passed a decree allowing itself to continue functioning in parallel with the new Maduro-majority chamber until fresh elections are held in 2021.
“My first message is to Maduro and it is that we’re here, on our feet,” said Guaido in a video posted on social media as he held a parliamentary session from an unknown location.
He described the official swearing in ceremony as “a show taking place in a Federal Legislative Palace hijacked by a dictator that no one recognizes.”
Guido, though, has been criticized for boycotting the December 6 elections.
“I do not think that this duality (of power) will continue for much longer,” Benigno Alarcon, director of the Center of Politics and Government at Venezuela’s Andres Bello Catholic University, told AFP. Maduro, he said, “has control of the country through force” and a firm grip on all state institutions.
This means, among other things, he could use Covid-19 restrictions on movement to ban any possible protests against his rule.
At the same time, Guaido is faced with increasingly feeble opposition mobilization.
A referendum-style consultation called by Guaido and held over five days in December for people to condemn the December 6 vote and Maduro with it failed to muster the large numbers of opposition supporters that participated in the protests of 2019.
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