A week earlier, the nation's highest court appointed the new members of the Electoral Council, a body of five officials tasked with organizing elections. The ruling was part of a pattern whereby the top court has refused to recognize the legitimacy of the assembly. Hailing the rulings on Tuesday, Maduro declared: "We're going to change everything that must be changed at the National Assembly. On Monday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called the new Electoral Council "illegal" and said the sentence "takes Venezuela further away from a democratic transition." Similar criticism came from the European Union and the Lima Group, which pulls together several Latin American countries that do not recognize Maduro.

Source: CNN June 19, 2020 08:48 UTC