The new Venezuelan national assembly, 90% Chavist, was installed this Tuesday, January 5 as provided for by the constitution.
She was elected in a vote to the legitimacy contested by the opposition during the elections of December 6.
The new office of the assembly has been installed with the former minister of communication, Jorge Rodriguez, as president.
Its first vice-president is the former minister of prisons, whom we saw at the end of February 2019 at the head of a group of recently released heavily armed detainees who led the coup against the opposition on the Colombian border during the failed, but highly publicized, opposition humanitarian aid delivery operation.
The former president of the National Assembly and interim president, Juan Guaido, held a session of "his" national assembly, dominated by the opposition, in a "place kept secret for security reasons" in the east. of Caracas.
At the end of December, he passed a law extending the mandate of deputies “until free elections are organized”.
"We do not fight against usurpers by usurpation" recently confided to us Victor Alvarez, Chavist minister in the 2000s who broke his old party.
Corruption cases
Juan Guaido called on Venezuelans to resist by participating in “opposition demonstrations against the dictatorship”.
But nobody listens to what Juan Guaido says anymore.
Venezuelans once believed in his ability to change things and oust Maduro's government.
But his helplessness quickly chased the delusions of Venezuelans.
Corruption cases, including two recently exposed by the Washington Post involving representatives of the interim president in the United States, have permanently ruined his political credit.
To read also: Juan Guaido: "The Venezuelan regime has embezzled 200 to 300 billion dollars"
“The struggle of the representatives of the opposition in the National Assembly since 2015 has proved fruitless and no longer concerns Venezuelans, deplores political scientist Colette Capriles.
I have seen the anti-Chavista opposition in difficult situations, but this is the worst moment I have seen.
The politicians (close to Guaido) are isolated in a political process that we no longer understand… ”For the political scientist, the latest statements by Juan Guaido and his entourage are nothing but gestures without any meaning.
"When the political debate no longer speaks of anything but legitimacy, it is because there is no longer any political debate" alarmed Colette Capriles.
Several opposition leaders have openly expressed their opposition to Juan Guaido's strategy.
Enrique Capriles of Primera Justicia, presidential candidate against Chavez then Maduro, has for several weeks shown his disagreement with Juan Guaido's desire to remain at the head of parliament.
Stalin Gonzales, one of the interim president's most influential deputies since January 2019, said his duties as deputies end on Tuesday, January 5, as provided for by the constitution.
Read also: Venezuela: after the legislative elections, the fragile response of the opposition
This imbroglio embarrasses the countries that supported Juan Guaido.
How can we continue to support him when his mandate at the head of parliament and that of all deputies has ended?
The session of the new National Assembly which appointed its new office was chaired by the dean of deputies Fernando Soto Rojas who declared from the rostrum: “The National Assembly of 2015 has had its day, sad, with lies and serious crimes against the homeland.
The time for national reconciliation has come to fight against Yankee imperialism and Covid19.
This assembly has constitutional legitimacy.
We must put an end to the terrorist and fascist policy directed from Washington ”.