Caracas – AFP
Venezuela’s elected National Assembly in 2015, which has no power, extended for a year the duties of opposition leader Juan Guaido, who declared himself interim president to try to oust President Nicolas Maduro.
Guaido was speaker of parliament when he declared himself interim president of the country in 2019, while the international community did not recognize Maduro’s re-election a year ago, following elections boycotted by the opposition and considered it “fraud”.
The opposition-dominated National Assembly was elected in 2015 and its mandate officially expired in January 2021, and was stripped of its power in 2017 with the election of a constituent assembly supporting Maduro’s authority.
The opposition also boycotted the 2020 legislative elections, which consequently allowed the authority to regain control of the assembly.
The opposition deputies agreed that their term and that of the government would “continue for 12 months, starting from the fourth of January,” and decided that “the Speaker of the National Assembly would carry out the functions of the presidency in order to defend democracy and lead the protection of state assets abroad.”
Thanks in particular to the international community, the interim government controls vast Venezuelan assets and property abroad, but Guaidó has no power in his own country.
After numerous criticisms of the administration, opponents reformed some of the powers of the “interim government” by removing posts and promising better control of funds.
“Our commitment to defend Venezuelans has been confirmed,” Juan Guaido wrote on Twitter.
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