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Juan Guaidó, the leader of part of the Venezuelan opposition and who proclaimed himself in 2019 interim president of Venezuela in an attempt to overthrow President Nicolás Maduro, was confirmed in this position for another year by the National Assembly as the cracks in the opposition cannot be hidden.
Juan Guaidó and part of the Venezuelan opposition continue to cling to the figure of the interim presidency. This Tuesday, January 4, the opposition approved the continuity for 12 more months of the mandate of Guaidó, who proclaimed himself the country’s maximum head in 2019 in the midst of a political crisis.
“In the first place, the National Assembly is extended for one more year, for 12 months, starting on January 5 of this year 2022 (…) The center of Government and other governmental instances, the president of the National Assembly, are abolished. , Juan Guaidó, acts as president in charge of the Republic for the purposes of defending democracy and for the purposes of protecting the assets of Venezuela around the world ”, declared Juan Pablo Guanipa, vice president of the National Assembly of Venezuela.
It was the so-called unitary platform of the Venezuelan opposition that agreed to support the extension, until December 31, 2022, of the “presidency in charge (interim)” of former deputy Guaidó.
A fragmented opposition fighting for power in Venezuela
In an attempt to overthrow President Nicolás Maduro, opposition Juan Guaidó proclaimed himself incumbent president in January 2019, when he was also leading the National Assembly (AN). At that time, the body had a large opposition majority.
The international community supported Guaidó, by not recognizing the re-election in 2018 of Nicolás Maduro, after a vote boycotted and described as “fraudulent” by the opposition.
Today # 3Jan our commitment to the defense of Venezuelans, the possibility of solutions to the crisis and international dialogue to achieve it is ratified. All attached to our Constitution.
The @Assembly and the Presidency in Charge will not give in to the dictatorship. https://t.co/cWTNfEO71L
– Juan Guaidó (@jguaido) January 4, 2022
The former deputy proclaimed himself president of the country under the protection of a particular reading of the Constitution that allowed him to be so for 30 days, with the premise, among others, of calling presidential elections that never came.
For the 2020 legislative elections, Guaidó did not appear, thus losing the presidency of the AN. Consequently, Parliament was renewed on January 5, 2021, with 92% of the seats occupied by the ruling party and the rest by dissident opponents from the Guaidó bloc.
But before, in 2017, the AN had already been stripped of its power with the election of a Constituent Assembly favorable to Maduro’s power.
With two parallel powers, Guaidó appointed a delegated commission, an instance contemplated in the Constitution to operate only during the vacation periods of the deputies and which is made up of less than 10% of the plenary session, made up of members of the previous AN.
In that commission, Guaidó received support to extend his position for another year, regardless of legal recognition.
If Guaidó continues to have a certain relevance, it is thanks, in particular, to the international community, since the interim government controls Venezuelan assets and assets abroad, although Guaidó does not have effective power in his country.
With AFP and EFE
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