The Venezuelan opposition expels Juan Guaidó as leader of the interim government that challenged Nicolás Maduro since 2019

By The Associated Press

The Venezuelan opposition put an end to the interim government on Friday and turned around the political strategy that, led by Juan Guaidó, tried since 2019 to challenge Nicolás Maduro, the Chavista leader in power.

A total of 72 former deputies of the National Assembly elected in 2015 approved the elimination of the interim period in the second and final discussion, while 29 voted to maintain it.

There were 8 votes saved.

The political defeat for Guaidó, the face of the opposition to the Maduro regime before the international community, occurs when the opposition plans primary elections in which it will define who will face Maduro in the elections expected in 2024.

Guaidó, president of the opposition Assembly, failed to establish a majority to maintain the interim figure despite warning in a video published two days before that his removal would imply a "real risk of losing assets, lawsuits or even handing them over to the dictator."

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The decision was made by former deputies of the Assembly elected in 2015 with a majority opposed to the Maduro government, which continues to sit in parallel and symbolically despite the fact that its term ended in 2021, after ignoring the legislative elections in which Maduro regained control of the Assembly National.

The parties that voted in favor of the elimination of the interim period propose the creation of a commission in charge of managing the state assets of Venezuela abroad that are still in the hands of the opposition with the ad hoc boards of the Central Bank of Venezuela and the state oil company PDVSA, thus maintaining control of Citgo