Juan Guaidó was confirmed on Monday night (3) by a fragmented opposition as “in charge of the Presidency” of Venezuela, a position he claimed in 2019 with the support of a number of countries to try, without success, to overthrow the dictator Nicolás Maduro.
Deputies of the majority opposition Parliament elected in 2015, whose term ended in January 2021, approved its “continuity (…) for up to 12 continuous months, from January 4, 2022”, maintaining the policy of ignoring the elections 2018 presidential elections, as well as the 2020 legislative ones. Both processes are denounced as fraudulent by the Guaidó group.
“The President of the National Assembly will act as in charge of the Presidency” of Venezuela, “for the purpose of defending democracy and directing the protection of state assets abroad,” said the 2015-elected Parliament, referring to blocked state funds for the Maduro government in the United States and other countries.
The agreement was approved around midnight, in a meeting of the Zoom platform. The attributions of the so-called “interim government” were reformed, now with the promise of greater control in the management of public resources.
“Today the Constitution wins, today Nicolás Maduro is lost,” celebrated Guaidó, who in practice has no real authority in the country.
After refusing to recognize Maduro’s reelection in 2018, Guaidó was sworn in on a “self-possession” as interim president in front of a crowd in a Caracas square.
It is Maduro, however, who has total control of the territory, with the support of the Armed Forces, to which he has given a lot of power. Guaidó “is a kind of political Frankenstein who has failed,” recently said Maduro, whose power is not at risk, bolstered by his party’s victory in the November regionals.
“Imperialism believed that Venezuela belonged to them and that, in a colonial way, they could put in a president,” the dictator said.
Guaidó also faces a part of the opposition convinced that its strategy must be rethought. His own “chancellor”, Julio Borges, resigned claiming that the “interim” should “disappear”.
With control of resources abroad, however, Guaidó continues to lead the opposition. “We defeated the pretense of wanting to divide the democratic alternative,” said Guaidó in the second session. The group lost access to the National Assembly headquarters when Chavismo won the 2020 parliamentary elections, also boycotted by the opposition.
Guaidó is recognized by dozens of countries, but with less and less excitement. The United States is its main ally. It was former President Donald Trump who led an international offensive to topple Maduro, imposed sanctions on him, including an oil embargo, and handed Guaidó control of Venezuela’s assets on US soil.
Joe Biden’s current government, though less effusive, retains this support, “fundamental” according to political scientist Pablo Quintero. “Without the United States, Juan Guaidó would be nobody”, he says. “It’s not just that the United States supports a government, even an imaginary one, without real power.”
“There is no change” in the Biden administration in relation to Venezuela, said Ned Price, a spokesman for the State Department, on Tuesday (4).
“Withdraw support [a Guaidó] it would be to make a concession to Maduro without him giving anything in return,” summed up Mariano de Alba, an expert on the Venezuelan crisis and senior adviser to the International Crisis Group.
The European Union, although it does not recognize Guaidó with the title of president, considers him the only valid interlocutor in Venezuela, even though it maintains open channels with Maduro’s government — the countries of the bloc maintain embassies in Caracas.
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