Venezuela’s socialists take over once-defiant congress

CARACAS, VENEZUELA » Parading giant portraits of Hugo Chavez and independence hero Simon Bolivar, allies of President Nicolas Maduro retook control of Venezuela’s congress Tuesday, the last institution in the country it didn’t already control.

The symbolic restoring of the images to Venezuela’s parliament capped a celebratory day for the ruling socialist party in which they claimed to have avenged the humiliating defeat five years ago when government opponents won control of the legislature and proceeded to remove portraits of the two national icons in a fierce — if futile — challenge to Maduro’s lock on power.

Jorge Rodriguez, the incoming assembly president, vowed to “exorcise” from the legislative palace all vestiges of its previous occupants, who he accused of plotting from its neo-classical chamber Maduro’s violent overthrow with the help of foreign mercenaries and the Trump administration.

Maduro’s allies swept legislative elections last month boycotted by the opposition and denounced as a sham by the U.S., the European Union and several other foreign governments. While the vote was marred by anemically low turnout, it nonetheless seemed to relegate into irrelevancy the U. S.-backed opposition led by lawmaker Juan Guaidó.

Exactly a year ago, Guaidó, in a blue suit and tie, tried to scale a spiked iron fence to get past riot police blocking him from attending the parliament’s inaugural session, which according to the constitution must be held every year on Jan. 5.

A far cry from that electric display of defiance, Guaidó held his own virtual parliamentary session Tuesday, via Zoom, with a cohort of opposition leaders.

“They are trying to annihilate Venezuela’s democratic force,” Guaidó said in his online address, which was overshadowed by the government’s celebratory session in the legislature downtown. “But we aren’t going to give up.”