CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) – A new Venezuelan parliament was sworn in Tuesday with President Nicolas Maduro’s party in firm control and opposition leader Juan Guaido officially without a job, but with foreign backing to keep up a parallel legislature.

The new assembly was denounced as “a fraudulently elected body” by outgoing US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who said in a statement Washington recognized Guaido as “the legitimate president of Venezuela”.

“We consider this group to be illegitimate and will not recognize it nor its pronouncements,” he said of the new parliament which was also rejected by Colombia, Brazil and Uruguay.

Members of the Lima Group, consisting of more than a dozen Latin American nations and Canada, said they did “not recognize the result of an election” that violates the National Assembly’s “constitutional right to meet without intimidation or interference” to elect its president and governing board.

A total 256 of the National Assembly’s 277 seats are in the hands of Maduro’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela and its allies after the December 6 elections boycotted by the opposition, who claimed fraud.

The chamber, which has a five-year mandate, previously had an opposition majority with Guaido as its speaker since 2019.

Guaido, now officially out of a job, has plans to maintain a parallel parliament of shadow opposition lawmakers.

He is considered Venezuela’s legitimate head of state by around 50 foreign governments, while Maduro is subject to Western sanctions and labeled a dictator over alleged voter fraud and other abuses.

Crucially, Maduro has retained the support of Venezuela’s powerful military and every branch of government able to exercise actual power.

Only parliament was beyond his grasp — until now.

But even while the opposition controlled the National Assembly for five years, they had no actual power as the regime-dominated Supreme Court annulled their every decision.