The tweet came out as the opposition told news agencies that police officers had attacked Ms. Machado’s motorcade after her first appearance in public since August. Her motorcycle outrider was shot in the leg. Recounting the episode yesterday on social media, Ms. Machado said she was being taken to a military prison, when the police suddenly changed their plans. They stopped, recorded a “proof of life” video, and then released her.
If she was released by a tweet, it shows the Maduro regime’s edginess about the incoming administration in Washington. Two key posts are to go to Florida politicians who are Venezuela hawks. Mr. Trump has chosen Senator Rubio to be Secretary of State. For National Security Advisor, he has chosen Representative Mike Waltz, a former Green Beret who recently co-sponsored anti-Maduro legislation in the House.
On the international front, Mr. Maduro starts 2025 in isolation. The left-wing governments of his two big neighbors, Brazil and Colombia, sent only ambassadors to the inauguration. Absent was Chile, South American’s third major left-wing government. This week, President Gabriel Boric called Maduro a dictator.
Lashing out at Argentina’s libertarian president, Javier Milei, Mr. Maduro yesterday called him a “Zionist Nazi” and a “social sadist.”
In the same speech, Venezuela’s leader said he was the victim of a global conspiracy led by America and its “slave satellites” in Latin America.
In a parting shot to the Biden administration, he said: “We say to the outgoing North American government: ‘We won, they couldn’t defeat us.’”
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, left, and the opposition’s presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez at Caracas, July 25, 2024. AP/Cristian Hernandez
The only foreign heads of state present for the inauguration were the presidents of Cuba, Miguel Diaz-Canel, and Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, both allies of Mr. Maduro. Also in attendance was the speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin.
Missing was a representative of Syria. Only last month, as opposition units approached Damascus, Mr. Maduro sent Bashar Al-Assad, then still president, a public message of support: “The government and people of Venezuela support Syria in its struggle against terrorism.”
Russia’s failure to help Syria seemingly bodes ill for Mr. Maduro in faraway Venezuela. Ms. Machado asked the Financial Times last week whether they did not think that Maduro’s generals “look in the mirror and see the generals which Assad left behind?”
Presidents Putin, right, and Maduro, left, outside Moscow, December 5, 2018. Maxim Shemetov/pool via AP
To increase pressure on Mr. Maduro and his entourage, President Biden yesterday raised to $25 million the bounties for the arrest and conviction for drug trafficking of the Venezuelan president and for his interior minister, Diosdado Cabello. The administration also placed a new bounty of $15 million on the defense minister, Vladimir Padrino. Britain, Canada, and the European Union also on Friday expanded sanctions against Venezuelan officials.
As the inauguration ceremony was underway at Caracas, Secretary of State Blinken said in a statement: “The Venezuelan people and world know the truth — Maduro clearly lost the 2024 presidential election and has no right to claim the presidency.” Said Ms. Machado in a video address: “Today, Maduro didn’t put the sash on his chest. He put a shackle on his ankle, which will tighten every day.”
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Publish date : 2025-01-11 00:42:00
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