Mired in uncertainty and tension, Venezuela has reached a date marked in red on its political calendar. Nicolás Maduro, in power since 2013, took office this Friday for a third consecutive term after presidential elections in which the National Electoral Council (CNE) declared the victory of the until now president, despite not having made public the minutes. that would confirm it.
The ceremony took place in an event at the headquarters of the National Assembly, where Maduro arrived accompanied by the first lady, Cilia Flores, the executive vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, and the president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez. In the surroundings of the legislature and the rest of the public powers, in the center of Caracas, hundreds of heavily armed security agents have been deployed.
The largest opposition coalition claims the victory of its candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia, and has called the elections of July 28, 2024, in which it claims victory, fraudulent with partial copies of documents electoral today guarded in Panama. González Urrutia has the support of countries such as the United States and Argentina, which have recognized him as “elected president,” while the European Union has failed to recognize Maduro’s victory. Reports from UN observers and the Carter Center have questioned the electoral result proclaimed by the Venezuelan electoral body.
González Urrutia, who left Venezuela in September to settle in Spain and began a tour of America a few days ago to meet with allied leaders, had assured that this Friday he would arrive in Venezuela to take office as president-elect. He has repeatedly promised that he will return to the Caribbean country, but had not given details about how he would do so.
The government, which has accused the opposition of fomenting plots against it, has said it will arrest González if he sets foot in the country. Both the opposition and organizations have denounced a wave of arrests in recent weeks. The Colombian Foreign Ministry has reported that Venezuela informed them this Thursday that, “unilaterally and for internal reasons,” they will keep the border that both countries share and their airspace closed for 72 hours from 5 a.m. this Friday.
The country is under a large military and police deployment. The investiture is held one day after an opposition march that ended with the report of a brief arrest of its leader María Corina Machado, which the Government denied. The confusion lasted a few hours and her political team later said she had been freed. For his part, Maduro mobilized his followers on Thursday and called for them to “take to the streets in millions” for his inauguration.
Venezuelan authorities have assured that some 2,000 guests from 100 countries would attend Maduro’s inauguration, but only a handful of them are presidents, including Cuban Miguel Díaz-Canel.
The presidents of Brazil, Mexico and Colombia – countries that tried to mediate in the post-election crisis without success – have not traveled to Caracas to participate in the official ceremony. Instead, they had announced the attendance of their ambassadors in the Caribbean nation. The three countries, heavyweights of the Latin American left, have avoided officially recognizing Maduro’s victory – nor have they recognized González Urrutia as “elected president” -.
Chile, for its part, has decided not to send representatives to the investiture. This Thursday, the Chilean president, Gabriel Boric, redoubled his criticism against the Maduro Government, which he described as a “dictatorship.”
The Chinese Foreign Ministry announced that a special envoy of President Xi Jinping would attend the inauguration, while Russia is represented by the president of the Duma or chamber of deputies.
Source: www.eldiario.es
