Lawmakers loyal to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro stripped Juan Guaido of immunity Tuesday, paving the way for the opposition leader's prosecution and potential arrest for supposedly violating the constitution when he declared himself interim president.
But whether Maduro's government will take action against the 35-year-old lawmaker remains unclear.
Guaido has embarked on an international campaign to topple the president's socialist administration amid deepening social unrest in the country plagued by nearly a month of power outages.
He declared himself Venezuela's interim president in January, and vowed to overthrow Maduro. So far, however, Maduro has avoided jailing the man that the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump and roughly 50 other nations recognize as Venezuela's legitimate leader.
Tuesday night's vote was unanimous. Constituent Assembly president and socialist party boss Diosdado Cabello accused the opposition of naively inviting a foreign invasion and of inciting a civil war.
"They don't care about the deaths," Cabello said. "They don't have the slightest idea of ??what the consequences of war are for a country."
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