Usuario:Per9yj/Crisis presidencial de Venezuela

The presidential crisis of Venezuela is a political crisis revolving the legitimacy of who holds the presidency. On January 10, 2019 the IV Legislature of the National Assembly of Venezuela declared that Nicolás Maduro was “usurping” the presidential position and that Juan Guaidó - as president of the National Assembly - would be sworn in as president in charge of the country.​

Venezuela has been in an institutional crisis since 2016, when the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ), whose authority is questioned by the opposition,​​ ordered the removal of three deputies from the Estado Amazonas. These three deputies had been accused of the alleged purchase of votes.​ Without these deputies, the opposition lost the qualified majority in the Venezuelan parliament.​

In 2017, the Supreme Court awarded itself the powers of the National Assembly, something that the Assembly considered unconstitutional and that led to a strong wave of protests during 2017.​ The government reacted to the protests by calling for the election of a National Constituent Assembly (ANC).​ This election was rejected by the Venezuelan opposition as fraudulent,​ a claim shared by various international organizations and countries in the region.​

In 2018, the National Constituent Assembly advanced the presidential election to May of that year.​ Both the decision, which according to the 1999 Constitution fell on the National Assembly, as well as the electoral campaign and the results, were rejected by a large part of the international community.​​ At the beginning of 2019, the National Assembly declared the usurpation of the office of the president in accordance with article 233 of the Constitution.​​

After assuming the interim presidency, Guaidó proposed three central objectives for his political strategy: the cessation of the "usurpation" of the government by Nicolás Maduro, the establishment of a "transitional government" promoted by the National Assembly (IV Legislature) and the celebration of "free and transparent ” elections.​

Guaidó was initially recognized by more than fifty countries as president of Venezuela, including the Lima Group, with the exception of Mexico, most countries of the European Union, the European Parliament, the United States, Australia, Japan and Israel, among others.​​​​​​ Seven countries recognized the legitimacy of the National Assembly. By 2020, more than sixty countries have recognized Juan Guaidó as President and he has his representatives in several diplomatic embassies and consulates.​​​​ Twenty countries recognize Maduro, including some ALBA countries such as Cuba and Nicaragua, as well as allied countries such as China, Turkey and Russia.​​​​​​​ Seventeen countries have declared themselves neutral to this crisis, along with the United Nations and the Vatican.​​

Background

In the elections of May 2018, President Nicolás Maduro was re-elected in a climate surrounded by irregularities, leading many to believe that the election results were invalid.​​ These remarks added to the views that the Maduro government is nothing more than an ineffective dictatorship, and many national and international political figures claimed that Maduro had not been legitimately elected.​​​ ​ In the months leading up to his inauguration on January 10, 2019, Maduro was pressured not to continue as president by various governments and agencies, including the Lima Group (excluding Mexico), the United States, and the Organization of American States (OAS); This pressure only increased when the new National Assembly of Venezuela was sworn in on January 5, 2019.​​​ The National Assembly was rejected by Maduro in 2017, but the aforementioned governments and entities consider it the only legitimate democratic body in Venezuela.​

Maduro's election was supported by Russia, China, and ALBA.

Events

Challenges from the Ruling Party

The first major signs of an impending crisis were shown when Christian Zerpa, a magistrate of the Electoral Chamber of the Supreme Court of Venezuela, left his post and went into exile in the United States days before the presidential inauguration on January 10, 2019. Zerpa said that, Maduro is "incompetent" and "illegitimate."​​​

A second sign of the problems to come was that, according to a US intelligence source, Vladimir Padrino López, Venezuela's defense minister, had requested that Maduro resign. The defense minister threatened to resign if the president did not.​

Lack of International Recognition

Many countries and supranational organizations joined the National Assembly in arguing that the Maduro government was illegitimate. This led to the closure of several diplomatic relations and requests that Maduro resign or be removed.​​​​ Other organizations, such as ALBA, have supported the election of Maduro and have asked the opposition to accept his presidency.​ Maduro responded to the accusations against him by denouncing that they were "American imperialists” and compared the supposed foreign interference to colonialism.​ On January 28, 2019, the ONG Venezuela Global, an uncensored news outlet posted photos in front of the Venezuelan embassy in Chile, like other sources around the world, of Juan Guaido as president of Venezuela.​​​