Maduro Allies Set To Win Back Venezuela’s Congress In Vote Boycotted By Opposition

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Diosdado Cabello (left), a candidate in Venezuela’s upcoming National Assembly elections, bumps fists with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro during a closing campaign rally in Caracas, Venezuela, on Thursday. Venezuelans will vote for a new National Assembly on Sunday.

Ariana Cubillos/AP

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Ariana Cubillos/AP

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Nicolás Maduro Guerra, son of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, walks before a session of the Venezuelan Constituent Assembly’s in Caracas on Aug. 8, 2017.

Juan Barreto/AFP via Getty Images

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National Assembly President Juan Guaidó climbs the fence in a failed attempt to enter the compound of the legislature, as he and other opposition lawmakers are blocked from entering a session to elect new assembly leadership in Caracas, Venezuela, on Jan. 5.

Matias Delacroix/AP

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Matias Delacroix/AP

National Assembly President Juan Guaidó climbs the fence in a failed attempt to enter the compound of the legislature, as he and other opposition lawmakers are blocked from entering a session to elect new assembly leadership in Caracas, Venezuela, on Jan. 5.

Matias Delacroix/AP

Last January, National Guard forces in riot gear barred Guaidó from entering the National Assembly, after some Maduro allies claimed they had replaced Guaidó as assembly president, although with a vote taken on a show of hands without a quorum. The assembly leader’s vain attempt to climb over the railings in a suit and tie made international headlines.

Guaidó is in a still more uncomfortable position now. Maduro’s international allies will welcome a newly elected assembly, not least because it can be used to provide legal cover for deals, including oil agreements. Russia’s Foreign Ministry described Sunday’s elections as «the key to resolving the current controversy in Venezuelan society.

The embattled Guaidó must persuade his waning supporters that his claim to be interim president is intact, and that Venezuela’s current National Assembly remains legitimate. Starting Saturday, he and his allies are holding a weeklong referendum seeking to reinforce this.

The stakes are high. «Maduro’s objective isn’t even to gain legitimacy, Guaidó told the Agence France-Presse this week. It is to «annihilate the democratic alternative in Venezuela.