When The Winning Couple Fail To Smile That Broadly
The Oasis Reporters
January 14, 2025
In the face of a presidential swearing-in and the winner of the election is wearing a dry plastic smile while his wife shows no signs of joy, then know that something is amiss.
After a careful look at the prevailing circumstances in Caracas, Venezuela, we pick Foreign Policy’s story on Maduro’s Swearing in after a contentious election.
A Dark Dangerous Hour
by FP
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was sworn in on Friday for his third six-year term as president amid a backdrop of mass protests and foreign outcry. Much of the international community and independent vote monitors claim that opposition leader Edmundo González rightfully won last July’s presidential election, with tally sheets from electronic voting machines showing that González secured twice as many votes as Maduro.
“This is the darkest and most dangerous hour that Venezuelans have experienced since the fall of the atrocious dictatorship Marcos Pérez Jiménez,” journalist Boris Muñoz wrote in El País on Wednesday ahead of the inauguration ceremony.
González and ally María Corina Machado urged Venezuelans to take to the streets to protest the Maduro regime, leading hundreds of anti-government demonstrators to march on Caracas.
Even Machado, long in hiding due to government crackdowns against political dissidents, emerged to participate in one of the rallies.
Her team accused government forces of violently detaining her on Thursday, only to release her hours later.
Vice President Delcy Rodríguez denied government responsibility.
Since last July, the Maduro regime has arrested thousands of protesters. More than 20 people have been killed during the unrest, and many demonstrators have said they were tortured while in custody.
Police, military, and intelligence officers guarded the legislative palace in Caracas as Maduro was sworn in.
“I swear that this new presidential term will be one of peace, prosperity, equality, and new democracy,” Maduro said in his inauguration speech.
At the same time, he blamed other Latin American governments and the United States of “attacking” Venezuela’s electoral process, but without any evidence.
Washington has been calling González the “president-elect” since last November, and earlier this week, the opposition leader met with U.S. President Joe Biden and vowed to return to Caracas on inauguration day. At the time of writing, González’s current whereabouts are unknown.
“The international community cannot allow the normalization of fraud in the most transcendental human rights crisis in our hemisphere,” Juan Pappier, the Americas deputy director at Human Rights Watch, posted on X on Thursday.
Following Maduro’s inauguration, Washington imposed sanctions on eight Venezuelan officials and increased the reward for Maduro’s arrest from $15 million to $25 million.
Rewards also exist for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello and Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López.
The European Union and United Kingdom also announced sweeping new sanctions on Caracas on Friday.
Also on Friday, the Biden administration extended temporary protected status for approximately 600,000 Venezuelan nationals in the United States for an additional 18 months, citing “the severe humanitarian emergency the country continues to face due to political and economic crises under the inhumane Maduro regime.”
Even among Venezuela’s Latin American neighbors, very few foreign leaders attended the ceremony.
“The poor showing due at Maduro’s inauguration represents a chilling in regional support,” FP’s Catherine Osborn wrote in Latin America Brief this week.
Notable absences included Colombian President Gustavo Petro and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Foreign Policy
