Maduro takes new oath amid protests, international rebuke

VENEZUELA

Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro talks to high-ranking officers during a military ceremony on his inauguration day for a third term in Caracas, Venezuela, on Friday. ARIANA CUBILLOS — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Image

CARACAS, Venezuela >> Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was sworn in for a new term on Friday, 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.

“I have not been made president by the government of the United States, nor by the pro-imperialist governments of Latin America,” he said, after being draped with a sash in the red, yellow and blue of Venezuela’s flag. “I come from the people, I am of the people, and my power emanates from history and from the people. And to the people, I owe my whole life, body and soul.”

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.

To underscore Maduro’s growing isolation, the U.S., 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 Biden administration, citing Venezuela’s “severe humanitarian emergency,” also extended for 18 months a special permission allowing 600,000 Venezuelan migrants to stay in the U.S. It also upped to $25 million a reward for the arrest of Maduro and Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello to face drug trafficking charges in the U.S., and placed a new bounty of $15 million on Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino.

In a video recorded from the Dominican Republic and released on social media, Maduro’s opponent, Edmundo González thanked Venezuela’s “democratic friends” for their support.

citing the latest sanctions.