The Venezuelan opposition reinvents itself with a Parliament in exile with little room for maneuver

Juan Guaidó leaves this 2023 from the management team of the Venezuelan opposition.

After the end of the interim government on December 30, by vote of the majority parties that withdrew their support, a rather fragmented opposition tries to recompose itself in the continuation of the National Assembly with an opposition majority, elected in 2015, in which they are considered the last legitimate elections in Venezuela.

A long wear and tear to achieve a political transition and the removal of Chavismo from power, precedes this new parliamentary junta that will govern from exile.

After a struggle between the parties of the so-called G4 —Voluntad Popular, Primero Justicia, Acción Democrática and Un Nuevo Tiempo— the opposition seeks to continue without Guaidó.

This Thursday, a new legislative period was installed and the presidency in which Guaidó was for four years was renewed, since 2019, when he challenged Nicolás Maduro for the presidency in charge, under the thesis that the Chavista leader is usurping power since he was re-elected in 2018 in elections questioned for his lack of democratic guarantees.

That power vacuum left by the elections considered fraudulent was filled by Guaidó as head of Parliament, according to an interpretation of article 233 of the Constitution, welcomed by a large part of the international community that recognized him as president in charge of Venezuela and gave him powers over assets and state companies abroad.

Now, the new board is chaired by women with Dinorah Figuera from PJ, who is based in Spain,

At the head and as first and second vice presidents Marianela Fernández from UNT who is in the United States and Auristela Vásquez from AD who is also in Spain.

Popular Will, the party of Guaidó and Leopoldo López, refused to be part of the board of directors.

The figure of the presidency, which had ambassadors and advisors and appointed presidents in PDVSA and the Central Bank of Venezuela, was replaced by the Board of Administration and Protection of Assets on which there is still no consensus on its members or its relationship with the National Assembly that will now pass, without the interim and without the presence of its executive members in Venezuela, to an even lower profile, less political, to a kind of hibernation.

“Today I leave this institutional space that I have always respected above any interest.

God bless the decisions we are and are making right now.

I reiterate the need for this Assembly to assume the powers of article 233. This oath has an important connotation.

Today more than ever."

Regarding the administration of resources abroad, the United States has already advanced that it will continue to give recognition to the leadership of the National Assembly elected in 2015, to Guaidó and similar leaders.

Washington maintains ignorance of the legitimacy of the Maduro government, although in the last year it has begun to build bridges such as the easing of sanctions and also led to a meeting with high-level officials in Miraflores.

The situation of the gold stored in the Bank of England remains to be seen, subject to a dispute between the Maduro government and the Guaidó team in the interim.

The change of command session of the opposition Assembly was brief.

The new president made it clear that this version of Parliament is subject to the agreements of the negotiating table that resumed talks in Mexico at the end of last year.

In addition, she reiterated that her first challenge is to recover the unity of the opposition coalition with the primaries for the election of a candidate to face Maduro in the 2024 presidential elections that have not yet been officially called.

“It is important to remember that this is a Parliament that is not going to work under normal conditions, that has to strengthen its fight to rescue the unity of all Venezuelans, without accentuating the division of what we are inside or outside.

We are defending Venezuelans from a dictatorship,” said the deputy.

The Parliament controlled by Chavismo also began a new session on January 5, as established by the Constitution.

Jorge Rodríguez was ratified as president for the third year, and also heads the Venezuelan government delegation in Mexico and is in the front line of command of the Madurismo along with his sister, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, to the point that he attended the inauguration of Luis Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil and received the Venezuelan embassy in that country, which during Guaidó's interim administration with the support of former president Jair Bolsonaro—was controlled by one of his ambassadors in charge.

"The opposition and the empire believed that through aggression they were going to take the reins of the country," said Rodríguez in his speech,

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