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Juan Guaido at the Venezuelan Parliament, January 7, 2020 in Caracas. REUTERS / Fausto Torrealba

While he has disputed since Sunday the presidency of the Venezuelan Parliament with his rival Luis Parra, the opponent Juan Guaido managed this Tuesday January 7 to take the oath from the perch. Not without difficulty.

Juan Guaido had to wait until the end of the session chaired by his rival Luis Parra before entering the precincts of the Parliament and taking the oath. With most of the 100 deputies who elected him on Sunday , he was blocked by the army at the entrance to the building where they say they were attacked by pro-Maduro activists whose hoots were heard until the interior of the palace.

The Luis Parra session ended, the majority of Luis Guaido was able to enter the building. The elected officials then rushed to the closed doors of the hemicycle, which they forced despite the resistance of the military, to invest the Chamber by intoning the national anthem. When they were able to enter the gallery, Luis Parra had already left the scene.

Juan Guaido in turn opened a parliamentary session, says our correspondent in Caracas, Benjamin Delille . It was held in the dark because the electricity was quickly cut off. But that did not stop the opponent from doing what he could not have done on Sunday: taking an oath on the Constitution from the top of his perch. " On behalf of Venezuela, I swear to fulfill the duties of interim president ," he said. It was by virtue of his office as Head of Parliament that Juan Guaido declared himself interim president of the South American country on January 23, 2019.

On Sunday, Luis Parra had unilaterally proclaimed himself new head of parliament after an eventful session which Juan Guaido and many opposition deputies were unable to attend, held outside the building by long police checks. It was finally in the premises of the newspaper El Nacional that the number one opponent of President Nicolas Maduro had been re-elected President of the Chamber.

His swearing-in does not, however, resolve the crisis: the Venezuelan Parliament has not only two presidents, but now two Assemblies.