The National Assembly (AN, Parliament) of Venezuela inaugurated this Monday the legislative period 2026-2031, with a Chavista majority, the return of some opponents and in the midst of political uncertainty after the US attacks and the capture of the president Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.
During the inaugural session, the Chavista deputy Jorge Rodriguezbrother of the executive vice president and interim president, Delcy Rodriguezhas been re-elected as head of Parliament. During his speech, Jorge Rodríguez has promised to resort to “all spaces” to “bring back” Maduro.
Among the deputies who attended the session was Nicolás Maduro Guerrathe president’s son, who has sworn in for a third term as deputy, as well as the opponents Henrique Capriles y Stalin Gonzalezwho distanced themselves from the majority opposition and participated in the regional elections of May 2025. Maduro Guerra has expressed his “unconditional support” to the president in charge and has predicted that “sooner rather than later” her parents “will return to Venezuela.
“The country and the world are going through a complex special situation (…), the president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro Moros, has been kidnapped by the United States Government in a barbaric attack,” said deputy Fernando Soto Rojas, who led the opening debate of the legislature, presided over by a photograph of the presidential couple in the speakers’ gallery.
The new National Assembly has an absolute majority of Chavismo, with 256 of the 285 deputies.
Meanwhile, Venezuelans are awaiting upcoming events after Delcy Rodríguez published her first signed statement as interim president on Sunday night, despite the fact that she has not publicly sworn in for the position. In his message, Rodríguez extended an invitation to the United States Government, led by Donald Trump, to work together on a “cooperation agenda.”
Constitutional reform in the air
One of the most important tasks that Maduro had entrusted to this new Parliament is to work on a constitutional reform that, he recently said, “dynamicizes, updates and strengthens the rights” established in the Magna Carta. With this new scenario, Parliament will have to decide whether it will continue working on the constitutional change or postpone it.
Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured by US forces during the attacks in Caracas and surrounding states, and taken this Monday before a federal court in New York in what was their first hearing after their transfer to the North American country.
The president is accused in the United States of four federal charges: narcoterrorism conspiracy, conspiracy to import cocaine, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess these same devices in support of criminal activities, as well as collaborating with organizations classified as terrorist by Washington.
