The decision of four governors-elect to yield to the ruling Constituent Assembly unleashed chaos in the opposition facing the upcoming municipal and presidential elections.
Fractured and cornered by the government after the October 15th elections, when the ruling party won 18 out of 23 governorships, the Democratic Unity Table (MUD) debated what it will do with the four of its five governors-elect, who left line.
In our states there are many families in misery. We are assuming the political cost to defend the vote of our electors,”
said the governor of Táchira State, Laidy Gómez, on Tuesday at a press conference held in a hotel.
The MUD repeatedly stated that it would not yield to the “blackmail” of the government forcing them to subordinate their governors to the Constituent Assembly, which is seen as fraudulent and illegal by the Venezuelan opposition and several Latin American governments, the European Union, United States and Canada.
On Monday, however, the elected leaders of Táchira (west), Anzoátegui (northeast), Mérida (west) and Nueva Esparta (north) bent the knee. Only the governor-elect in Zulia (northwest), Juan Pablo Guanipa, did not subordinate to the Constituent Assembly, which will shortly decide his future.
Maduro, who had threatened to remove the five opposition governors, celebrated the swearing-in as a recognition of the “plenipotentiary powers” of the Constituent Assembly, which rules with absolute powers since August, until 2019.