Venezuelan Self-Proclaimed ‘President’ Guaido Ousted as National Assembly Chief – Report

Earlier, the opposition leader announced his bid for reelection as speaker of the semi-defunct National Assembly legislative body, as the Venezuelan political crisis he helped initiate approaches its one year anniversary.

Venezuelan opposition leader and self-proclaimed ‘president’ Juan Guaido has been removed from his post as chief of the National Assembly, multiple Venezuelan media outlets have reported.

According to the reports, Guaido was succeeded by Luis Parra with support from the pro-Maduro Bloc of the Motherland and some opposition MPs, with Franklin Duarte and Jose Gregorio Noriega elected as first and second vice presidents of the assembly.

Guaido accused police of blocking him from entering the National Assembly building in downtown Caracas, and other opposition deputies reportedly left the legislature or were prevented from entering ahead of the vote. Guiado and his opposition allies called Parra’s election illegitimate, saying the session was not attended by the minimum required number of lawmakers.

Guaido engaged in a heated debate with security officers outside the legislature, saying their move to prevent him from entering was “unprecedented!” and constituted a “parliamentary coup.”

Guaido, 36, proclaimed himself ‘interim president’ last January, shortly after President Nicolas Maduro was sworn in for a second term in office. He received immediate recognition from the United States and its Latin American and European allies. President Maduro decried the declaration, calling it an attempted foreign-backed coup and a plot to take control of Venezuela’s vast oil and mineral resources. The US and its allies froze Venezuelan assets abroad, and transfered control of some of these assets to Guaido’s ‘interim government’. Last March, Caracus estimated that over $30 billion in Venezuelan assets abroad had been stolen by the opposition.

The opposition-controlled National Assembly has been held in contempt by Venezuela’s Supreme Court since 2017, with all of its decisions annulled and lawmakers stripped of their legislative powers and parliamentary immunity. The semi-defunct National Assembly was replaced by the Constituent Assembly as Venezuela’s legislative branch in August 2017.

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