Venezuela's Maduro takes new oath amid protests and international rebuke
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was sworn in Friday for a new term, extending his increasingly repressive rule in the face of renewed protests and rebukes from the United States and others who believe he stole last year's vote.
Venezuela’s legislative palace, where he was sworn in and delivered a fiery speech, was heavily guarded by security forces who have become Maduro's main hold on power since last summer's disputed election. Crowds of people, many sporting pro-Maduro T-shirts, gathered in adjacent streets and a nearby plaza.
Maduro, likening himself to a biblical David fighting Goliath, accused his opponents and their supporters in the U.S. of trying to turn his inauguration into a “world war.” He said his enemies' failure to block his inauguration to a third, six-year term was “a great victory" for Venezuela's peace and national sovereignty.
“Today more than ever I feel the weight of commitment, the power that I represent, the power that the constitution grants me,” he said, after being draped with a sash in the red, yellow and blue of Venezuela's flag. “I have not been made president by the government of the United States, nor by the pro-imperialist governments of Latin America.”
State TV said 10 heads of state attended. But far more governments around the world have rejected his victory claims, pointing to credible evidence validated by election observers that his previously unknown opponent, Edmundo González, won by a more than two-to-one margin.
To underscore Maduro's growing isolation, the Biden administration, Canada, the U.K. and European Union announced a coordinated round of new sanctions Friday on more than 20 officials, accusing them of gutting Venezuela's democracy. They include the loyalist Supreme Court justices, electoral authorities, the head of Venezuela's state oil company and cabinet ministers.
The backslapping among government insiders in downtown Caracas on Friday contrasted sharply with the hundreds of Venezuelans who took to the streets Thursday to protest Maduro's power grab.
The protest took place in relative calm but after it ended, the popular former lawmaker María Corina Machado — the driving force of what's left of Venezuela's beleaguered opposition — was briefly detained when her motorcycle convoy was intercepted by security forces. An hour later, as international condemnation poured in, she appeared in a 20-second video published by the government saying she had dropped her purse.
“I'm safe,” she said in the video, which the opposition said was coerced. “Venezuela will be free.”
Machado, whom the government has barred from running for office, had emerged from months of hiding to join the rally and demand González be sworn in instead of Maduro. Maduro’s supporters denied she was arrested, accusing his opponents of spreading fake news to generate an international crisis.
Maduro's 2018 election was widely rejected as a sham after authorities banned key opponents from running. And Venezuela's opposition faction accuse him of outright ballot fraud last year.
Their proof: tally sheets collected from 85% of electronic voting machines that show González won by a landslide. Experts from the United Nations and the Atlanta-based Carter Center, whom Maduro invited to observe the election, said the voting records posted online by the opposition look legitimate.
Nevertheless, electoral authorities loyal to the ruling party declared Maduro the winner hours after polls closed on July 28 but, unlike in previous presidential elections, they did not provide detailed vote counts.
Global condemnation over the lack of transparency prompted Maduro to ask the country’s high court — which like every other institution in Venezuela is packed with loyalists — to audit the results. As expected, the court reaffirmed Maduro’s victory.
The dispute over the results sparked nationwide protests. The government responded with full force, arresting more than 2,000 demonstrators and encouraging Venezuelans to report anyone they suspect to be a ruling-party adversary. More than 20 people were killed during the unrest. Dozens of foreigners — including as many as 10 Americans — were also rounded up.
Outside Friday's inauguration ceremony, Maduro's supporters were overjoyed. One of them was Maricarmen Ruiz, 18, who couldn’t hold back her tears.
“I don’t have words to express my emotion, I’m happy,” she said, expressing relief that González wasn’t “imposed” instead as president.
Among those seen attending Maduro's inauguration were Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega and Cuba's Miguel Diaz-Canel. But several Maduro allies stayed home, including Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who cited the recent arrest of another longtime Venezuelan opposition member and a human rights defender as his reason for missing the event.
González, who left for exile in Spain in September, had pledged to return to Venezuela by Friday to take oath himself. He faces arrest should he follow through on the promise.
On Tuesday, González said his son-in-law had been kidnapped in Caracas by masked gunmen while taking his young children to school. González’s daughter, Mariana González de Tudares, in a statement accused the government of ordering her husband’s disappearance.
“At what point did being related to Edmundo González Urrutia become a crime?” she said.
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Goodman reported from Miami. Associated Press writer Jorge Rueda contributed.
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