The number two of Chavismo and president of the National Constituent Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, frequently repeated that the objective of this body parallel to the legislative power that he has led almost since its creation in 2017 was to bring peace to Venezuela.
But the step taken by consolidating a counter-power to the National Assembly, controlled by the opposition since the 2015 elections, has been a milestone in Venezuela's institutional drift, the last blows to democracy by Nicolás Maduro.
Now that the elections of last December 6, not recognized by the majority of the international community - including the European Union and the United States - have returned legislative control to Chavismo, the Constituent Assembly is dissolved without fulfilling its reason for being, to elaborate a Constitution, which was the excuse that served to create this new parliamentary forum parallel to the one in which the opposition to Chavismo won the majority.
It leaves, yes, thirty norms that give even more power to the head of state.
After Sunday's elections, the Maduro regime seeks to turn the page of these five years in which Chavismo had a real counterweight for the first time.
The Constituent Assembly was not a merely symbolic element to confront the opposition and fight for the use of the hemicycle.
The body served the regime as an instrument to persecute opposition deputies, with the processes to withdraw their immunity, which led more than 30 parliamentarians into exile.
It also allowed the institutionalization of repression with regulations such as the Law Against Hate, which punishes those who “incite hatred” with up to 20 years in prison, and which has been used to prosecute citizens who protest in the streets or who criticize the Government. through social networks, or even through messages sent by phone.
By this law two firefighters were arrested who recorded a satirical video with a donkey that they identified as the president.
This instance created the so-called “constitutional laws” that are above the Constitution and any other legal system.
"The Constituent Assembly guaranteed the Maduro government more powers and, therefore, more power, with the aim of deepening the authoritarian presidential model and dismantling the very text of the Constitution," according to a recent report by the NGO Acceso a Justice.
"Chavismo demonstrated that they recognize elections, but they do not respect them," adds Alí Daniels, director of the organization.
“With the Constituent Assembly there was a deviation of power.
A body is created to draft a Constitution, but in reality it is done with a different intention, which is to establish a parallel mechanism to annul the opposition Assembly.
The Constituent Assembly did not allow Maduro everything.
The lawyer points out that Chavismo needed the formal National Assembly - the one established in the Magna Carta - to legitimize itself before commercial partners such as China, in the context of a foreseeable opening to the privatization of bankrupt state companies.
The Venezuelan Constitution states that all international contracts and agreements must go through parliamentary approval.
During the time that the opposition controlled Parliament, the Government was excluded from these mechanisms.
The composition of the new Parliament, emerging from Sunday's elections, will be almost the same as that of the Constituent Assembly.
Polls indicate that the base of the ruling party reaches just 15% of Venezuelans, but at the polls the United Socialist Party of Venezuela obtained 67% of the votes and won 91% of the seats.
Maduro confirmed this week that Cabello will close the Constituent Assembly in the coming days.
“A virtuous cycle is going to be completed since I summoned the constituent power.
Today we can say that it was worth it.
It was useful, necessary and of high impact for the modern history of the country.
The Constituent Assembly allowed taking the reins of the Republic, avoiding a civil war and consolidating peace between 2017 and 2020, ”Maduro told the foreign press.
The play allowed him to navigate the last three years of one of the most complex political crises ever faced by Hugo Chávez's successor.
Interim government
The closing of ranks on the interim government of Juan Guaidó, and especially its duration in time, remains to be seen.
"We are facing a political tsunami," says the analyst.
“The parties have been destroyed and intervened, we no longer have a legitimate Assembly.
The next enemy is likely to be the NGOs that have dealt the two strongest blows the government has received this year with reports of human rights violations.
On the agenda of Cabello —elected deputy in 2015, who left that chamber to join the new Constituent Assembly and again deputy after Sunday's elections— is this issue as a priority.
Last Wednesday, in his television program, the number two of Chavismo reiterated his threats to pass legislation in the new Parliament to prohibit international financing and limit the work of non-governmental organizations.
“Let the law be applied.
These criminals are leaving, ”said the politician.