Venezuela's new Constituent Assembly has granted itself full powers over other government branches, feeding accusations President Nicolas Maduro is turning the crisis-hit country into a dictatorship.
The 545-member body elected last week amid international condemnation took the vote in the building of the opposition-controlled National Assembly in Caracas.
Earlier on Tuesday, soldiers had blocked National Assembly members from entering, while Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino entered the chamber surrounded by top members of the military.
"This government is forcing its way into chambers that it can't win through legitimate means," Stalin Gonzalez, leader of the opposition coalition that has held a majority in the National Assembly since 2015, after he was refused entry.
Freddy Guevara, vice-president of the National Assembly, said Venezuela was on the precipice of a "hard dictatorship".
The legislature last met on Monday, when they were still sharing the building with the Constitutional Assembly, which was elected in a July 30 vote decreed by Maduro and discredited by allegations of electoral fraud.
The country is experiencing a severe economic crisis, which the opposition has accused Maduro of worsening with mismanagement.
Despite almost daily protests since early April, in which more than 120 people have died, he has refused to step down.
Seventeen North and South American states on Tuesday condemned Maduro's actions and what they called a "break from the democratic order".
At a meeting in the Peruvian capital, Lima, their representatives said they would not recognise decisions by the Constituent Assembly.
"What we have in Venezuela is a dictatorship," Peruvian Foreign Affairs Minister Ricardo Luna said.
A UN humans rights team said earlier on Tuesday it had found regular and organised use of force against people protesting Maduro's rule amid a collapse of the rule of law.
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