This handout image launched by the Venezuelan Presidency press workplace reveals Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro (L) taking the oath throughout the presidential inauguration on the Capitolio — dwelling of the Nationwide Meeting- in Caracas on January 10, 2025. Maduro, in energy since 2013, took the oath of workplace for a 3rd time period regardless of a world outcry that introduced 1000’s out in protest on the ceremony’s eve. (Photograph by ZURIMAR CAMPOS / Venezuelan Presidency / AFP)
CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro was sworn in Friday for a 3rd six-year time period rejected by the opposition as a “coup d’etat” achieved by way of election fraud and a marketing campaign of repression.
The opposition accuses Maduro, 62, of stealing the election of July 28 final yr, and america, European Union, and several other Latin American nations have acknowledged opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia as Venezuela’s professional president-elect.
Maduro took the oath earlier than parliament, vowing his subsequent time period can be a “interval of peace,” a day after 1000’s took to the streets to protest his alleged energy seize.
“With the usurpation of energy by Nicolas Maduro… supported by brute pressure and ignoring the favored sovereignty expressed… on July 28, a coup d’etat has been achieved,” the Democratic Unitary Platform coalition mentioned in a press release.
Whereas Maduro claimed his investiture was a “victory of democracy,” america and Britain instantly introduced recent sanctions on a number of senior Venezuelan officers.
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Critics have denounced a recent crackdown on opponents and critics within the lead-up to Friday’s ceremony, with a number of activists and opposition figures arrested in latest days.
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Opposition chief Maria Corina Machado, who had come out of hiding to guide Thursday’s anti-Maduro rallies, was briefly held by safety forces, in keeping with her workforce.
At the very least 17 protesters have been additionally detained, in keeping with a publish on X by Gonzalo Himiob of the NGO Foro Penal.
Maduro ordered the deployment of 1000’s of police and troopers not too long ago.
Safety forces solid a menacing pall over Thursday’s demonstrations and stored a watchful eye over the capital Caracas for the swearing-in, closing off streets and organising roadblocks.
Caracas confirmed the presence of President Miguel Diaz-Canel of Cuba — considered one of Maduro’s few allies — at Friday’s ceremony, which began greater than an hour sooner than scheduled.
‘We’re not afraid’
Gonzalez Urrutia, 75, had vowed to return to Venezuela to take energy Friday, however these plans seem to have floundered with Caracas gripped by a wave of worry.
“Wished” posters providing a $100,000 authorities reward for his seize have been plastered all around the capital.
Greater than 2,400 folks have been arrested, 28 killed, and about 200 injured in protests following Maduro’s declare of election victory final yr.
The president has since maintained a fragile peace with the assistance of the safety forces and paramilitary “colectivos” — armed civilian volunteers accused of quelling protest by way of a reign of neighborhood terror.
Venezuela’s CNE electoral council, loyal to the regime, had introduced victory for Maduro inside hours of polls closing final July. It has but to offer an in depth vote breakdown.
The opposition, for its half, launched a tally of polling station outcomes displaying Gonzalez Urrutia successful no less than two-thirds of the vote.
Gonzalez Urrutia had changed the wildly widespread Machado, 57, on the poll after she was barred from operating by authorities.
On Thursday, Machado defiantly addressed protesters in Caracas, vowing: “We’re not afraid.”
Her workforce reported that Machado was “violently intercepted” as she left the rally and knocked off the bike she was on as pictures have been fired within the neighborhood.
She was then detained and compelled to file a lot of movies earlier than being let go, it mentioned.
‘Worldwide conspiracy’
Information of Machado’s detention sparked a flurry of condemnation, together with from neighbor Colombia, which hosts many of the estimated seven million Venezuelans to have fled their nation’s financial collapse underneath Maduro’s 12-year rule.
Citing “a global conspiracy to disturb Venezuelans’ peace,” Freddy Bernal, governor of the frontier state of Tachira, subsequently introduced Friday that the border with Colombia was closed for the weekend.
US President-elect Donald Trump insisted Thursday that Machado and Gonzalez Urrutia “shouldn’t be harmed.”
Throughout his first time period in workplace, Trump had tightened punitive measures towards the Maduro authorities for anti-democratic actions.
The sanctions have been partly lifted, then reimposed, by his successor Joe Biden and could be hardened in Trump’s subsequent time period.
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Maduro’s earlier re-election, in 2018, was additionally broadly rejected as fraudulent however he managed to cling to energy by way of a mixture of populism and repression, even because the financial system imploded.