Juan Guaidó, the newly appointed President of the National Assembly of Venezuela, began motions to form a transitional government as soon as he took the National Assembly role on 5 January 2019. Whether Maduro took office on the 10th or not, the country would not have a legitimately elected president.[5] On behalf of the National Assembly, he became one of the first to denounce Maduro taking office, saying that the country had fallen into a de facto dictatorship and had no leader,[6] and that they were in a state of emergency.[7]
Maduro's government said that the crisis was a "coup d'état led by the United States to remove him from power and control the country's oil reserves."[8]