Oct 13, 2026 · 23 min · 9 segments
Episode 27 | How did Venezuela end up with two presidents in 2019? In this episode we look at the strategy led by Juan Guaidó, the attempt to bring humanitarian aid into the country, and the tense…
To understand what happened that January, we need to go back to the election Maduro had held the year before.
In May 2018, the regime organized a rigged presidential election.
Leading opponents were excluded, major parties refused to participate, and the institutions administering the election were completely controlled by the dictatorship.
Maduro was declared the winner.
But the result was rejected by the opposition and a broad group of foreign governments.
The ceremony of an election could not conceal the absence of the guarantees that made that election democratic.
That created a problem because Maduro's existing term expired on January 10th, 2019.
On that day, Maduro went to the Supreme Court and took the oath for another six years.
I
The opposition rejected the inauguration.
Maeludo's previous term had ended, and the fraudulent election had produced no legitimate president to begin the next one.
Technically, he was usurping the office.
The opposition's constitutional argument drew on Article 233 of the Constitution, which places the president of the National Assembly in charge when a president-elect is permanently unavailable before taking office.
Applied to the absence of a legitimately elected successor, that provision supplied the basis for an interim presidency.
The duty to restore the Constitution and the right to resist an abusive regime supported the broader argument.
And let me be clear, this was a legal interpretation of how to restore a constitutional government.
And it brought the presidency of the National Assembly back to the center of Venezuelan politics.
To understand what happened that January, we need to go back to the election Maduro had held the year before.
In May 2018, the regime organized a rigged presidential election.
Leading opponents were excluded, major parties refused to participate, and the institutions administering the election were completely controlled by the dictatorship.
Maduro was declared the winner.
But the result was rejected by the opposition and a broad group of foreign governments.
The ceremony of an election could not conceal the absence of the guarantees that made that election democratic.
That created a problem because Maduro's existing term expired on January 10th, 2019.
On that day, Maduro went to the Supreme Court and took the oath for another six years.
I
The opposition rejected the inauguration.
Maeludo's previous term had ended, and the fraudulent election had produced no legitimate president to begin the next one.
Technically, he was usurping the office.
The opposition's constitutional argument drew on Article 233 of the Constitution, which places the president of the National Assembly in charge when a president-elect is permanently unavailable before taking office.
Applied to the absence of a legitimately elected successor, that provision supplied the basis for an interim presidency.
The duty to restore the Constitution and the right to resist an abusive regime supported the broader argument.
And let me be clear, this was a legal interpretation of how to restore a constitutional government.
And it brought the presidency of the National Assembly back to the center of Venezuelan politics.
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