Venezuela

Legislators of the opposition-controlled National Assembly resumed their activities on May 15, after having been prevented from entering the building the day before, apparently due to a bomb threat which caused the Assembly to be sealed off by members of the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB), the Bolivarian National Police (PNB) and the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (Sebin). Among other issues on the agenda for that day, deputies had planned to discuss responses to the arrest of Congressman Edgar Zambrano.

Juan Guaidó, the president of the National Assembly said “they [the Maduro government] are trying to seize the Legislature, while the dictator, Maduro, barricades himself in the Palace of Miraflores [home to the Executive branch]”. Other opposition deputies dismissed the bomb threat as an excuse to obstruct parliamentary activity. Meanwhile, Diosdado Cabello, the president of the Constituent National Assembly, claimed the threat was real and that security forces had been deployed to protect the legislators.