Venezuela: Juan Guaido re-elected president of National Assembly

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido was re-elected on Sunday as president of the body after a bumpy day in which security forces prevented him from entering the legislative palace.

In an impromptu session held at the headquarters of the newspaper El Nacional, in east Caracas, 100 opposition lawmakers voted to keep Guaido as head of Congress for a second consecutive year.

"The dictatorship has once again committed another mistake," said Guaido shortly after being sworn in.

Earlier on Sunday, Guaido was violently blocked from presiding over a special session of congress where rivals proclaimed a substitute leader - moves opposition officials condemned as a hijacking of the country's last democratic institution.

Hours later, however, a majority of congress members held an emergency meeting at an opposition newspaper office and voted to re-elect Guaido as their leader.

Guaido — whose legal challenge to the socialist government has been based on his role as head of congress — headed a small group of lawmakers trying to access the neoclassical palace where the opposition-controlled National Assembly was set to elect its leader.

But they were pushed back by national guardsmen wielding heavy riot shields.

As scuffles broke out, the US-backed leader tried to mount an iron fence surrounding the legislature, only to be repelled again. His blue suit was ripped apart during the chaotic stand-off.

Inside, the scene was similarly rowdy, as a rival slate headed by lawmaker Luis Parra were sworn in as legislative leaders. Opposition leaders immediately denounced the session as a "show" carried out by a group of "traitors" paid off by President Nicolás Maduro.

They complained Parra's election was invalid on numerous grounds — arguing the session was never officially opened, no quorum count was taken and no formal vote was called — merely a rushed show of hands.

When they gathered later for an impromptu session at the El Nacional newspaper, the last major daily critical of the socialist government, 100 of the legislature's 167 members voted to reelect Guaido for the final year of the Assembly's 2015-2020 term. '

Several of the lawmakers who have been forced into exile were represented by alternates at the impromptu session.