Juan Guaidó loses legitimacy
06.01.2020
Certain constitutional experts believe that the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, secured his re-election through a flawed electoral process and that the President of the National Assembly should fulfil this function pending new presidential elections. It is on the basis of this questionable interpretation that the United States recognized the President of the Assembly, Juan Guaidó, as the country’s interim president.
The President of the National Assembly is elected for one year at the beginning of the year. The constitutionalists who challenge President Maduro were therefore waiting to find out who would be designated by the Assembly both as its president and as interim President of the Bolivarian Republic.
Following the attempted military coup on 30 April 2019, the handful of parliamentarians involved, with the exception of Juan Guaidó, were tried by the courts and stripped of their electoral mandate.
The National Assembly is mainly composed of elected officials who oppose President Maduro. In recent months, a strong movement emerged to challenge Juan Guaidó’s adventurism and to call for reason, indicating that the opposition was ready for a change at the helm.
Friends of Mr. Guaidó’s tried to subvert the voting system by allowing the outcast MPs to vote online. But the maneuver failed.
On 5 January 2020, Juan Guaidó turned up at the Assembly accompanied by the individuals sanctioned by the courts for their involvement in the coup attempt. He was allowed entry, but not his group. He then attempted to go in by jumping over the garden fence and was warded off by the Assembly guards (photo). The images that have been seen around the world are deliberately misleading: Juan Guaidó was perfectly entitled to walk in through the door, only his group was not.
This episode went on for more than 2 hours. In the end, the parliamentarians in attendance, realizing that Juan Guaidó would not take the risk of running for office, appointed the oldest MP to open the session. Moreover, they elected another member of the opposition group, Luis Parra, as President of the Assembly. Contrary to what has been reported by several media outlets, the quorum was largely reached and the election of Mr. Parra is legal.
In recent months, press reports have revealed that Juan Guaidó and his family became suddenly rich once he started managing the funds that the United States confiscated from the Venezuelan state. Also revealed was that Luis Parra has sealed a mafia pact with senior officials to divert a public aid program.
Later, opting not to enter the Assembly building, Juan Guaidó gathered a group of MPs at the headquarters of the daily El Nacional. They proceeded to hold another session of the Assembly and, without convening their other colleagues, elected Juan Guaidó. According to the journalists present, the quorum was reached by counting the expelled MPs and the deputies of the MPs in office.
he United States immediately recognized the third one and accused the other two of being impostors. They were mimicked by their allies from the Lima Group and the European Union. The majority of UN member states continue to support Nicolas Maduro.
A further session of the Assembly is scheduled for January 7, 2020.
