MAYARA PAIXÃO
The limited presence of global leaders set the tone for the moment Nicolás Maduro is experiencing in his third inauguration, held this Friday (10). More isolated than ever, the dictator holds on to the tentacles of the regime, but sees international support diminishing.
Unlike his last inauguration, in 2019, which was contested, but carried out following an election boycotted by the opposition, this time Maduro clings to power after an election considered rigged and in which part of Venezuela and a good part of the international community say that Edmundo González was the real winner.
In power since 2013, the dictator was sworn in at the Federal Legislative Palace, in Caracas, for another six years in power, until 2031. The ceremony was led by the president of the unicameral Parliament, the regime’s first ally Jorge Rodríguez, who greeted a to one, and with pomp, the main leaders of Chavismo.
“To the traitors of the country, I say to you: we are the drafters of this Constitution; it was born despite you, oligarchs, and we will comply with the Constitution”, said Maduro in his speech, to applause. Afterwards, he said again that he will initiate a constitutional reform.
The ceremony followed a confusing Thursday in Caracas. After more than three months without appearing in public, opposition leader María Corina Machado took to the streets to join an opposition event and later claimed to have been detained by the regime and released.
A video in which she said she was well circulated in the meantime, raising doubts about the veracity of the content. Later, allies of the opponent said that she was forced to record content. The country’s attorney general, Tarek William Saab, denied to Folha that there had been an arrest, and other authorities said the same.
Since the elections on July 28th, the regime has not published, as required by law, the electoral records that can prove the election numbers. With its leadership aligned with Chavismo, the local electoral body said that Maduro was elected with 52% of the votes. The Supreme Court approved the process and did not require the disclosure of the minutes.
With documents collected from its voting witnesses, the main opposition coalition claims that former diplomat Edmundo González won with more than 60% of the votes. The Carter Center, the only independent international observer of importance in the election, also says that González was chosen at the polls.
The regime says it is an international plan to overthrow it. “The global extreme right, led by a Nazi, a social sadist called Javier Milei, together with the North American empire, believes it can impose a president on Venezuela,” said Maduro, referring to the president of Argentina, today his main rival in South America.
Six Venezuelan opponents have been living in asylum in the Argentine embassy in Caracas, currently under the care of Brazil, for ten months. And an Argentine police officer is detained in the country, accused by the regime of association with terrorist activities.
Exiled in Madrid, González stated that he would go to Venezuela so that he could be sworn in. It was a statement seen as fanciful by many. Until this Friday afternoon (10), there was no information about the opponent’s movements, who would be in the Dominican Republic, as part of a tour of Latin American countries.
The Minister of the Interior, Diosdado Cabello, one of the most powerful figures in the country, says that there was a plan for González to take office abroad, possibly in an embassy, and that Enrique Márquez, a more moderate former presidential candidate who this week was arrested, he sought to support him by allegedly stealing documents from the electoral body to help with the plan.
In his speech, Maduro stated that elections for the National Assembly and for governments and city halls will be called soon. It is uncertain whether the regional elections will feature opposition participation. Until now, anti-chavistas had not discussed the issue, leaving doubts about a possible boycott. And even about whether the regime will open doors to dissent.
Governments that previously had a moderate tone in relation to the dictatorship have raised their tone, one by one, in recent days and months.
The most expressive message came from Gustavo Petro’s Colombia. In the last hours of this Thursday (9), its chancellor released a video lasting around four minutes in which he said that Caracas has violated human rights and that the electoral process did not respect the democratic rite, but that he will not break diplomatic relations.
Chilean Gabriel Boric also once again expressed criticism after this week removing from Caracas the ambassador he had sent in 2023 in an attempt to restore ties broken in the administration that preceded him.
“I am a person of the left, and in this place I tell you: Maduro’s government in Venezuela is a dictatorship”, said the president, who must leave office this year (Chile vetoes consecutive re-elections).
Not even Maduro’s allies, such as Bolivian Luis Arce, attended, but they had representatives. China sent Wang Dongming, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress. Russia, Viatcheslav Volodin, President of the Lower House of Parliament.
Daniel Ortega’s dictatorship in Nicaragua initially said it would send a delegation of 16 people; in the end, the regime leader himself attended. From Cuba, the most important figure: leader Miguel Díaz-Canel, who arrived in the country this Friday morning.
Brazil sent its ambassador, Glivânia Oliveira, the diplomat who under the Lula 3 government was responsible for trying to rebuild diplomatic bridges after the rupture under the management of Jair Bolsonaro (PL).
At least for now, Brasília does not plan to comment on the escalation of repression in Venezuela. Under reservation, interlocutors say that the government’s objective is to maintain a “low profile” so as not to close channels of dialogue. Recognizing Maduro as elected is not an option, and the same goes for Edmundo González.
From Brazil, a delegation from the MST (Landless Rural Workers Movement) and a group of leaders from the PT (Workers’ Party), President Lula’s party, were present.
