Juan Guaidó Is Voted Out as Leader of Venezuela’s Opposition

Juan Guaidó Is Voted Out as Leader of Venezuela’s Opposition

“Let’s defend institutionality, the Constitution and the country above names or personal interests,” Mr. Guaidó said on Twitter.

But the other three political parties achieved the necessary majority to ratify their decision to eliminate the parallel government.

During the vote on Friday, some lawmakers voiced their opposition to the decision, claiming it could put the country’s economic assets at risk of falling into the hands of Mr. Maduro’s government.

“This is shameful,” said Freddy Guevara, a representative of the Voluntad Popular party, who argued that the measure would strengthen Mr. Maduro. “I cannot understand how we are committing this suicide.”

Mr. Guaidó’s strength was tied to his international diplomatic recognition, but American sanctions designed to assist him gutted government revenues and forced Venezuelans to focus on daily survival, not political mobilization. And his attempts to spur a military uprising ended up consolidating the control of Mr. Maduro, 60, control over the armed forces.

The United States has continued to refer to Mr. Guaidó as the country’s interim president, even as other nations have backed away from that recognition, relations have begun to thaw with the Maduro government, and the administrations of several new leftist governments in South America have begun to soften their approach toward Mr. Maduro.

In the past few years, the Venezuelan opposition has succeeded in getting Mr. Maduro to agree to a political dialogue, which is set to continue next month in Mexico after being stalled for more than a year. As a part of those talks, Mr. Maduro has agreed to allow some Venezuelan funds frozen abroad to be used as humanitarian aid to help alleviate hunger and other problems facing the country.

Opposition leaders are also pushing him to allow free and fair conditions for a presidential election scheduled for 2024.

Isayen Herrera reported from Caracas, Venezuela, and Genevieve Glatsky from Philadelphia.

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