Juan Guadillo, a 35-year-old lawmaker who has declared himself the acting "president" of Venezuela, has in weeks turned the opposition to President Nicolas Maduro into a successful re-mobilization of the socialist president's opponents.

This tall man and his boisterous voice, on January 5 became the youngest speaker of the only opposition-controlled parliament in Venezuela, after he was immersed. "He is a boy who is talking politics," Maduro said of him.

In recent years, emerging opposition figures such as Leopoldo Lopez, Enrique Capriles and Freddie Guevara have disappeared from the political scene either because of imprisonment, denial of their civil rights or their transfer abroad.

Juan Andres Mejia, a 32-year-old lawmaker like Guido, told the Popular Will Party (LRA), led by Leopoldo Lopez, told AFP that Venezuela was "a country accustomed to the embodiment of power and allegiance and we are carrying Juan." "Change is not related to it alone, but to everyone."

Since taking over as opposition leader, the young man, who has not been accustomed to speeches, has moved from the shadows to the spotlight and has become a political figure.

During his tenure as the speaker of the parliament, the industrial engineer of modest origins received the support of the United States, the Organization of American States and Brazil, which was led by right-wing nationalist leader Jair Paulsonaro, Peru and Canada.

When he declared himself president on Wednesday, he was recognized as acting president by US President Donald Trump and Secretary-General of the Organization of American States (OAS) "to stimulate the return of democracy to this country."

His arrest by Venezuelan intelligence on January 13 during an operation in the center of a highway when he was on his way to a political meeting was widespread all over the world. He was released within an hour.

New Face

Two days later, US Vice President Mike Bens called him "courageous leadership" and expressed "firm support" for the Venezuelan National Assembly, which he sees as "the only legitimate democratic entity in this country."

Guido made several initiatives against the authority set up by former President Hugo Chavez, who proposed the formation of a transitional government to formally describe Maduro as an "usurper of power" and promised to "pardon" the military who accept to join the opposition.

Betting on a big mobilization against the regime Wednesday did not gather more than a few tens of thousands of opponents in Caracas and the rest of the country.

Guido, married and father of a child, recalls being "a survivor and not a victim", referring to a disaster in and around the state of Vargas (north) in 1999 and beyond.

In December of that year heavy rain caused landslides in the region some 25 kilometers north of Caracas, killing 10,000 people, according to the Red Cross.

He lived in that coastal area with his mother, brothers and five sisters. "I know what hunger means," he says.

Juan Guido began political work in 2007 with a generation of students who took to the streets against the late President Hugo Chavez (1999-2013).

"Guido is a new face seen by moderates as a man who is respected and respected by radicals for his active participation in demonstrations," said Diego Mayo Ocampus, an analyst at IHSMarket in London.

He was a founding member of the Popular Will Party in 2009 and became one of its leaders in the absence of Leopoldo Lopez, who spent recent years in prison or under house arrest for inciting violence during a wave of protests in 2014.

In 2010, Guido Lopez was elected deputy to the state of Vargas in 2015. Jose Irenandez, 24, who attended one of his speeches, said: "I did not know him before.