Venezuela’s Maduro Sworn in For Third Term Amid Outrages

Venezuela’s authoritarian president, Nicolás Maduro, has been​ accused of a shameless and fraudulent power-grab after swearing himself in for a third term, despite domestic outrage and international condemnation at his alleged theft of last year’s election.

“This is a great victory for Venezuelan democracy,” the 62-year-old autocrat boasted during a sparsely attended oath-taking ceremony in Caracas that was boycotted by the leaders of democratic nations.

​As Maduro extended his 12-year rule, the US announced a $65m bounty for his arrest and those of two close allies on international drug-trafficking charges and rejected Maduro’s claim to the presidency.

Maduro, who has led Venezuela in an increasingly repressive direction since being democratically elected in 2013, has failed to produce any proof that he won the 28 July vote. His opponents have published detailed evidence that their candidate, Edmundo González, was the actual winner thanks to widespread public anger at Venezuela’s economic collapse.

But on Friday morning, it was Maduro, who has refused to relinquish power and been backed by military and security chiefs, who had Venezuela’s yellow, blue and red presidential sash draped over his shoulders at the national assembly.

Among those who skipped the event in protest were the leftwing presidents of Brazil and Colombia, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Gustavo Petro, longstanding regional allies who have refused to recognize Maduro’s claim to victory.

However, the presidents of Cuba and Nicaragua, Miguel Díaz-Canel and Daniel Ortega, occupied front row seats, leaders of China and Russia, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, also sent envoys.

In a rambling but defiant 90-minute speech, Maduro claimed he was spearheading “a democratizing revolution” in Venezuela and cast himself as the fearless anti-imperialist leader of an “eminently democratic project” inspired by Latin America’s independence heroes.

He lambasted his political foes as violent and “putrid” fascists and oligarchs, calling Argentina’s rightwing president, Javier Milei, a far-right “Zionist Nazi” and “social sadist”.

“I wasn’t made president by the US government or the pro-imperialist governments of the Latin American right,” Maduro declared. “I come from the people. I am of the people – and my power emanates from history and from the people!”

Maduro’s swearing-in prompted a fresh outburst of international condemnation, including from members of the political left, which the Venezuelan strongman purports to represent.

Meanwhile, the US announced it was increasing its reward for information leading to the arrest of Maduro and his interior minister, Diosdado Cabello, for alleged drug trafficking offences, to $25m, and created a reward of $15m for information leading to the capture of Maduro’s longstanding defense minister, Vladimir Padrino López.