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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Venezuela's Guaido enters legislative palace after standoff with troops

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Venezuela's Guaido enters legislative palace after standoff with troops
Venezuela's Guaido enters legislative palace after standoff with troops

Venezuelan legislative chief Juan Guaido on Tuesday (January 7) entered the congressional palace following a tense standoff with security forces at the entrance, after the ruling socialist party on Sunday (January 5) installed a rival parliamentary leadership.

Guaido, who was re-elected on Sunday to a second one-year term as head of the opposition-held congress, had pledged to preside over Tuesday’s opening session after security forces blocked him from the building over the weekend to allow allies of President Nicolas Maduro to swear in their own speaker, Luis Parra.

“This is not a barracks.

This is the house of laws,” Guaido told the soldiers blocking his entrance on Tuesday.

“The military does not get to decide who can enter the house of laws.” But once inside, a brief session led by Parra had already ended.

Parra’s swearing in on Sunday gave Maduro sway over the last major state institution that had remained outside his control and appeared to mark a setback to Washington’s efforts to unseat him.

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