Venezuela’s opposition National Assembly on Friday voted to remove interim Venezuelan president Juan Guaido, dissolve his government and appoint a commission to govern the country’s foreign assets, as lawmakers seek a united front ahead of elections slated for 2024.
Guaido has been the public face of Venezuela’s fractious opposition since 2019, when he invoked the constitution to assume an interim presidency, garnering backing from the US and other governments who rejected the 2018 re-election of then-president Nicolas Maduro as fraudulent.
Maduro has remained in control of nearly all Venezuela’s institutions, including its security forces, and Guaido’s interim government, which has control over some foreign assets and runs many embassies, has seen its support wane.
Photo: AFP / Juan Guaido’s press office / Leo Alvarez
The vote came in an online session of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, a body elected in 2015 and now largely symbolic as it was replaced by a legislature loyal to Maduro.
Three of four major opposition parties — Justice First, Democratic Action and A New Era — backed the bill to oust Guaido and create a five-member commission to manage foreign assets, especially US-based refiner Citgo, a subsidiary of state-owned oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA.
“The interim government is no longer useful, and is of no interest to citizens,” the parties said in a joint statement.
Supporters say opposition control of foreign assets is not at risk and the dissolution is necessary for unity ahead of the elections.
“There are already tools to protect the assets in the United States, the United Kingdom, Portugal,” Justice First lawmaker Juan Miguel Matheus said.
The article eliminating the interim government and the article creating the assets commission passed with 72 votes in favor, 29 against and eight abstentions.
Guaido, whose Popular Will party did not back the effort, had urged lawmakers to replace him instead of dissolving the interim government.
“To annul this is to jump into the abyss,” Guaido told the assembly after the votes. “It is destroying what could have been maintained.”
“Today there was capitulation. Seventy-two lawmakers capitulated from a tool for fighting, which is the acting presidency,” he added.
Justice First lawmaker Tomas Guanipa said the opposition is not giving up.
“We are being realistic,” he said.
Opposition parties hope Washington would extend a license protecting Citgo from possible creditor seizures when the license expires this month.
Venezuela owes more than US$60 billion to creditors.
The US would continue to support the opposition, the assembly and the interim government “regardless of what form it takes,” a US National Security Council spokesperson said on Friday.
Additional reporting by AFP
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