Maduro forces oust Juan Guaido from Venezuela congress

Bloomberg

Venezuelan politics descended into disarray when security forces barred opposition leader Juan Guaido and his backers from entering the National Assembly, allowing loyalists to President Nicolas Maduro to choose an assembly president instead of Guaido.
His suit torn from scaling a fence, Guaido and his supporters went elsewhere and re-elected him anyway, drawing backing from Washington and Latin American and European powers that consider Maduro illegitimate and condemned his actions.
“This is a farce,” said lawmaker Stalin Gonzalez, a Guaido lieutenant after the assembly chose a new leader. “Where is the vote, the list of attendees or the quorum necessary for a vote like this?”
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a statement congratulated Guaido on re-election, adding that “arrests, bribes and blocking access to its building were unable to derail“ the assembly. But with Washington preoccupied over threats of retaliation from Iran, this could prove an opportune time for Maduro to pressure Guaido with relative impunity.
The move certainly illustrated growing confidence by Maduro that, despite the country’s spiralling poverty, hunger and dysfunction, Guaido’s yearlong attempt to oust him is losing steam.
After being re-elected by his colleagues, Guaido said they’d go to the assembly on Tuesday to meet. It seems unlikely to occur without a struggle.