Venezuelan Plivent Nicolas Maduro has been sworn in for a third six-year term after a satisfiedious election that saw his opponent Edmundo Gonzalez claim voter fraud and proclaim triumph.
By commenceing a recent term on Friday, Maduro is defying international prescertain and sanctions led by the United States, which has recognised Gonzalez as the thrivener of the July vote.
“May this recent plivential term be a period of peace, of prosperity, of identicality and the recent democracy,” Maduro shelp, pledging to adhere with the laws of the country. “I swear on history, on my life, and I will fulfil [my mandate].”
Maduro’s inauguration came a day after opposition guideer Maria Corina Machado made a unfrequent uncover materializeance to guide a protest agetst his rule. Machado’s team shelp she was informly hageded during the demonstration.
“I am now in a protected place and with more determination than ever before to persist with you until the finish,” Machado shelp in a social media post after her free.
Maduro, a establisher bus driver, rose to power after the death of left-thriveg guideer Hugo Chavez in 2013. His tenure has been marred by accusations of authoritarianism as well as economic and political cascfinishs.
In 2018, for instance, he faced another contested plivential election, with cut offal top opposition guideers barred from competing in the race.
In the aftermath, opposition guideer Juan Guhelpo contestd Maduro’s triumph and claimed the plivency. In 2019, the US and cut offal of its allies in the Westrict Hemisphere recognised Guhelpo as the legitimate plivent of Venezuela.
That same year, Washington broadened its sweeping sanctions agetst Venezuela, beginantening its economic problems. Npunctual 7.7 million people have fled the country, some due to allegations of political repression, others due to the economic instability.
July’s elections recommended the opposition hope of peacefilledy toppling Maduro, but the incumbent was speedy to proclaim triumph, claiming that he getd 51 percent of the votes.
The country’s electoral authorities have sided with Maduro, though they have not freed the normal fracturedown of results from Venezuela’s polling stations, fuelling criticism over the deficiency of transparency.
The opposition, unbenevolentwhile, has published what it claims are official loftyy sheets, shothriveg that Gonzalez won by a big margin.
Several left-thriveg guideers in South America have also criticised Maduro and asked the election results.
Maduro’s triumph in the July 28 plivential race prompted expansivespread protests in the weeks follothriveg the results, but a rulement crackdown has since dampened the demonstrations.
An appraised 2,000 people were arrested and 25 finished during the post-election demonstrations.
Still, the opposition has sought to protect prescertain on the Maduro rulement, calling for protests this week in the guide-up to the inauguration. Several hundred demonstrators unitecessitate Machado on Thursday, though the crowds were seeably petiteer than in the post-election protests.
Maduro’s rulement has accemployd the opposition of conspiring with foreign forces to clearhrow the plivent and publishd an arrest permit in September for Gonzalez, who fled the country and was subsequently granted asylum in Spain.
Gonzalez, a establisher diplomat, visited the US earlier this week and met with Plivent Joe Biden as part of a tour of countries in the Americas region.
The White Hoemploy shelp Gonzalez and Biden “conveyed beginant worry seeing Nicolas Maduro and his reconshort-termatives’ unacalerted and indiscriminate employ of repression agetst pacify protestors, democracy activists, and civil society”.
The US rulement has been referring to Gonzalez as the “plivent-elect” of Venezuela.
