Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido has been accused of pulling a PR stunt after a dramatic video showed him mounting a fence to enter the parliament, as it voted to replace him as the head of the legislature.

The opposition-led National Assembly changed guard on Sunday, with the majority of lawmakers electing Luis Parra, an MP from the centrist Justice First, a party in opposition to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s United Socialist Party (PSUV).

One of the absentees was US-backed opposition figurehead Juan Guaido, the now ex-leader of the National Assembly, who proclaimed himself the country’s ‘interim president’ a year ago.

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Guaido and a group of his henchmen were filmed attempting to climb a fence surrounding the legislature, with uniformed security guards pulling them back. The video has spread like wildfire online, and was picked up by mainstream media in the West, which spun it as evidence of Guaido being barred from participating in the key parliamentary vote by the supposedly ‘sinister’ Maduro ‘regime.’

#Viral 🔝 El instante en el #JuanGuaido intenta entrar por una reja a la #AsambleaNacional, pero la Fuerza Pública se lo Impide. 📹 Gregory Jaimes.https://t.co/I2Or9otkZrpic.twitter.com/jWSQhdJIRI — Caracol Radio (@CaracolRadio) January 5, 2020

But there’s a twist. Other footage shows Guaido chatting with members of the National Guard and refusing to enter the premises unless his companions, reportedly five other deputies who were stripped of parliamentary immunity pending criminal prosecution, are allowed inside. After his plea was rejected, Guaido reportedly raised hell and attempted to storm the building.

Video que demuestra que NO FUE la Guardia Nacional la que impidió el paso de Juan Guaidó a la Asamblea Nacional, sino que ÉL MISMO SE NEGÓ A PASAR argumentando que no lo haría hasta que no pase Gilberto Sojo, un diputado inhabilitado.Vía @OrlenysOVpic.twitter.com/rKyiSgQxuW — Luigino Bracci Roa (@lubrio) January 5, 2020

After his gambit failed, Guaido convened a parallel assembly at an office of the pro-opposition El Nacional newspaper. His supporters “re-elected” Guaido and ‘swore him in’ as the parliament’s leader, proclaiming the recent National Assembly vote unlawful.

Some say that Guaido had the newspaper’s office ready for the ceremony long before he threw his fit at the fence, suggesting this was nothing more than a publicity stunt.

Guaido y su combo tenían su show bien planeado desde hace días... Ya tenía listo el escenario en la sede de El Nacional para continuar con su espectáculo!!! pic.twitter.com/VfHx1IfZt0 — LLafrancis (@carollafra) January 5, 2020

In Venezuela today, we just witnessed a US-backed right-wing coup INSIDE of another US-backed right-wing coup.This is a whole new breed of meta-coups — Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) January 6, 2020

That didn’t stop some top political figures – like the US secretary of state and Bolivia’s self-declared interim president Jeanin Anez – from congratulating Guaido on his ‘re-election’ while taking aim at Caracas for allegedly impeding his access to the building.

Congratulations to @JGuaido on his re-election to the @AsambleaVE! Arrests, bribes and blocking access to its building were unable to derail #Venezuela’s National Assembly. Only a transitional government organizing free and fair presidential elections can end the crisis. — Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) January 6, 2020

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza denounced the stunt as yet another attempt by the US “to impose fake governments” after the “resounding failure” of its “coup strategy” in 2019.

.@SecPompeo: after the resounding failure of his 2019 coup strategy, Trump organized today a new circus, aiming to prolong the agression against the Venezuelan people &vthe fiction of a fake and unexistent government. Results: another intromission, another blunder,another failure https://t.co/SPIaWRq6oY — Jorge Arreaza M (@jaarreaza) January 6, 2020

While in Washington they continue with their imperial fantasy, trying to impose fake governments & to take the oil with criminal sanctions against the economy & the people of Venezuela, in Caracas we work based on reality, for our independence and for our right to live in Peace https://t.co/T5kSYqhhtt — Jorge Arreaza M (@jaarreaza) January 6, 2020

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