Who heads Venezuela's National Assembly? The political crisis deepens

The regime of Nicolás Maduro attempted to deliver yet another blow to the opposition in Venezuela at the weekend, trying to literally fence out his main rival for power, Juan Guaidó, from being re-elected as head of the National Congress.

But his efforts appear to have been thwarted by Guaidó's allies, at least in the eyes of the democratic world which still recognizes the young opposition leader as the country legitimate president.

On Sunday, soldiers loyal to Maduro prevented most opposition deputies from entering the Capitol building where the National Assembly is located, including Guaidó, who was seeking to be re-elected for a second term as head of the legislative body.

In the absence of a legitmate head of state, due to fraudulent elections in 2018, the National Assembly head is recognized as the country's interim president by more than 50 countries.

Guaidó was due to preside over a constitutional debate to elect the Assembly's new leadership for the 2020-2021 period, and was expected to be elected by a comfortable majority. A quorum of a simple majority of the Assembly's 167 seats was needed to hold the session, or 84 deputies.

In an unprecedented act, Guaidó was attacked upon his arrival at the Capitol, so he tried - unsuccessfully - to jump the fence, to get past soldiers blocking his entry. In his absence, dissident opposition lawmaker Luis Parra was "elected" by a group of Maduro loyalists in a sham vote that lacked a quorum.

After ripping his jacket climbing the fence, Guaidó was undeterred. Together with 100 opposition deputies, he was successfully re-elected later in the evening in the offices of a Caracas newspaper.

The U.S. was quick to state its continued recognition for Guaidó. "The [Maduro] regime is today more isolated and weaker than ever," Elliott Abrams, the U.S. special envoy for Venezuela told reporters on Monday. "They [the Maduro government] won nothing yesterday." Other countries followed suit, although the newly-installed left wing government of Argentina later withdrew its recognition of Guaidó.

Parra and Guaidó are due to face off again on Tuesday morning as the legislature starts a new session.

"The resulting split between a government-controlled assembly of dubious origin and a legitimate parliament stripped of its physical home and legal status is another escalation of Venezuela’s long-running political conflict," said the International Crisis Group (ICG) in a statement.

The ICG pointed out that having lost physical control of the parliament building, the opposition has potentially lost its last hold on power in the country, raising the prospect of a 'government-in-exile' and potentially more U.S. sanctions and calls for foreign intervention.

Additional reporting by David Adams