Guaido’s Power Base Snatched From Him in Parliamentary ‘Coup’

(Bloomberg) -- Opposition leader Juan Guaido saw his power base crumble Sunday when Venezuelan government and rebel opposition lawmakers ousted him as president of the National Assembly, in what some deputies called a parliamentary coup.As security forces blocked Guaido and other opposition lawmakers entering the building, Luis Parra, a deputy ensnared in a corruption scandal, declared himself the new leader of the chamber by megaphone amid chaotic scenes.“This is farce,” said opposition lawmaker Stalin Gonzalez, “Where is the vote, the list of attendees, or the quorum necessary for a vote like this?”The move is a setback for Guaido and his year-long attempt to oust President Nicolas Maduro with the support of the U.S. and many other Latin American and European nations. Guaido’s popularity has declined recently after a wave of protests and an attempted uprising all failed to topple Maduro, leaving no end is sight to the spiraling poverty and hunger suffered by many Venezuelans.While Parra officially opposes Maduro, government lawmakers were among the few allowed into the chamber today to vote him in as Assembly President. Guaido, meanwhile, was trying to scale a fence into the Assembly grounds and being pushed back by shielded national guards.“We have the majority, despite our persecution,” Guaido said from outside the assembly with his suit ripped following the confrontation. “Right now, Venezuela does not have a parliament in place.”Real VoteIn a tweet, Guaido’s administration called Sunday’s events a parliamentary coup. Guaido now plans to move forward with a vote outside the assembly.Michael Kozak, the acting Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs said today’s vote didn’t meet minimum constitutional standards.“Guaido will continue to have international support; however, his position has been further weakened,” said Dimitris Pantoulas, a political analyst in Caracas. “Spaces for democracy have been reduced, I believe there is none left.”The opposition was now unlikely to participate in parliamentary elections this year, Pantoulas added.Today’s events are “the equivalent of a coup against the only legitimately elected institution” in Venezuela, said Luis Vicente Leon, head of the polling company Datanalisis. “For an opposition that was already very weak, this is not good news.”Power StruggleUntil today, Venezuela had, in effect, two parliaments. To bypass resistance in the National Assembly, Maduro set up an alternative body, the National Constituent Assembly, in 2017.Packed with party loyalists, the new legislature stripped two dozen lawmakers -- including Guaido -- of their parliamentary immunity last year, exposing them to criminal prosecution. Many fled or remain in hiding, while some of Guaido’s closest allies are imprisoned.Taking office less than a year after a presidential election widely viewed as fraudulent, Guaido, 36, had invoked a provision in the constitution to justify the creation of an interim government ahead of a new vote. Yet, despite initial street protests in his favor and support from the U.S. and others, Guaido failed to dislodge Maduro. An attempted uprising against the socialist leader ended in failure and Maduro clung to power with the help of the military, as well as financial aid from China and Russia.Hit by the failure of his strategy to evict Maduro from power, Guaido’s approval rating dropped to a new low reaching 38.9% in November, a 22-point drop from a February peak, according to the latest survey by Caracas pollster Datanalisis.No DemocracyLast month, the assembly launched an investigation into a report of influence-peddling among nine opposition lawmakers, including Parra.A committee was established to investigate lawmakers accused of lobbying for a Colombian businessman linked to Alex Saab, a Maduro ally sanctioned by the U.S. and indicted on money-laundering charges in July.”It is clear now that there is no institution nor possibility to restore or continue a minimum democracy in Venezuela,” Pantoulas said. “The most probable scenario is that we’re going to have a parallel National Assembly.”(Updates with analyst comments starting in the eighth paragraph.)\--With assistance from Fabiola Zerpa and Nicolle Yapur.To contact the reporters on this story: Patricia Laya in Caracas at playa2@bloomberg.net;Alex Vasquez in Caracas Office at avasquez45@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Carolina Wilson at cwilson166@bloomberg.net, Philip SandersFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2020 Bloomberg L.P.