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Chaos in Venezuela: Guaidó loses election farce

Venezuelan opposition leader Guaidó wanted to be confirmed as President of the Parliament. But the election ended in a farce, and one of his rivals quickly became the head of the panel.

By Stephan Ozsváth, ARD Studio Mexico City

This image goes around the world, distributed via the online service Twitter. Opposition leader Juan Guaidó tries to climb over the fence of the parliament in Venezuela’s capital Carácas. The National Guard prevents him from doing so. The industrial engineer, who declared himself Venezuela’s interim president a year ago, had to remain in front of the parliament, along with other opposition MPs, shielded from security forces. Guaidó explained to journalists.

“They were witness to various – let’s say – pickets, various security forces that block access to parliament – including for the press, nationally and internationally. This is the dismantling of the rule of law and the death of the Republic of Venezuela.”

Only Maduro government socialist deputies and some opposition politicians had entered parliament. MP Luis Parra declared himself the new President of Parliament with a megaphone, showing pictures of state television.

Opposition suspects card game

The breakaway opposition politician José Bito had already declared to journalists in advance of the vote that he would succeed Guaidós at the head of the National Assembly.

“I can only tell you this much – the proposal is that MP Luis Eduardo Parra will be the new President of Parliament.”

So is it a card game? The opposition accuses Parra of organizing a vote against Guaidó, which is why he was excluded from his own party. Both Guaidó and his followers branded those who could be used for the controversial vote as “traitors”.

‘Parliamentary coup’

No one here sells, chanted opposition MPs hooked up on their march to parliament. Those who prevent the legitimate appointment of parliament make themselves complicit in a dictatorship, said Guaidó on Twitter. The National Assembly, in which the opposition is actually the majority, called Parra’s election as the new parliamentary president on Twitter a “parliamentary coup”. President Nicolas Maduro, on the other hand, presented the events in this way.

“What happened today is very simple: there was a session of the National Assembly and it elected a new leadership.”

But the vote could prove to be a boomerang for the Maduro regime, political scientist Benigno Alarcón said in an interview with the ARD, The international community will not accept the vote, the Venezuelan analyst believes, and continues to question President Maduro’s government.

Maneuvers could ultimately weaken Maduro

In the end, Guaidó could emerge stronger from this maneuver, the analyst believes. Because he acts as the one who wants to comply with the rules of the game. The Maduro regime, on the other hand, is being weakened. By the fact that MPs were obviously not admitted to parliament because the National Guard had occupied the parliament.

There have already been initial reactions: The vote for the US government’s Latin America representative Michael Kozak called the vote on Twitter a “farce”. There was neither the required number of votes, nor did the election meet constitutional standards. Guaidó, however, made it clear that he still considers himself the legitimate President of the Parliament: surrounded by opposition MPs – he opened a parliamentary session in the editorial office of a government-critical newspaper.

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