Nicolás Maduro Moros proclaimed himself president of Venezuela this Friday without having refuted the evidence that he committed fraud in the elections, presented by the opposition and international observers. “They couldn’t prevent this inauguration,” he said with the presidential sash across his chest. At one point, he mocked his opponent at the polls, Edmundo González, the opponent who, according to the impartial comparison of the minutes, clearly defeated Maduro at the polls. “I’m waiting for it to arrive, I’m nervous,” he said to the laughter of those present at the event.
Edmundo González did not enter Venezuela, as he had announced the day before. Chavismo activated the air defense system, so the plane in which it intended to enter was going to be shot down. “I have asked him not to do it because his integrity is fundamental for the final defeat of the regime and the democratic transition,” explained María Corina Machado, the opposition leader. The career diplomat even considered showing up at the border and surrendering to the Chavista authorities, but his environment dissuaded him. They convinced him that he was more useful in freedom, doing diplomatic work around the world.
For all this, a feeling of unease has surrounded the event, for which neither the time nor the exact place had been announced. In the end it was held in the Elliptical Hall of the National Assembly, an unusual setting for this ceremony. The person in charge of Chavista military operations deployed a Russian-made 9k37 BUK anti-aircraft missile system on the ground hours earlier as a form of deterrence. The borders with Colombia were closed. The Maduro Government wanted to prevent the opposition from entering its territory by land and air, as it had promised. That message, repeated insistently for a month and replicated by presidents of other countries, has placed Chavismo on alert.
After ten in the morning in Caracas, Maduro arrived at the National Assembly premises hand in hand with his wife, Cilia Flores, whom he met during the prison visits that both made to Hugo Chávez, imprisoned for an attempted assassination. coup d’état in the early 1990s. A red carpet was waiting for them to enter the building. The small room, decorated with oil portraits of illustrious people, was packed. The presence of Daniel Ortega and Miguel Díaz-Canel, the presidents of Nicaragua and Cuba, respectively, stood out. Jorge Rodríguez, president of the Assembly and Maduro’s man for everything, was in charge of officiating the event. His boss will serve a third term.
To scare away the shadow of illegitimacy, Maduro emphasized the symbology around the moment. The band sewn by women leaders of a parish. The necklace with the keys of the ark that keeps the act of independence. Bolívar’s sarcophagus. The serious look, the solemn pose. “A moment full of history,” said a public television announcer while Rodríguez brushed the fabric against Maduro’s shoulders.
Once the inauguration was completed, Maduro seemed excited. In the speech he gave that followed, lasting more than an hour, he left a phrase that explains the entrenchment of his Government despite the result: “I swore absolute loyalty to his legacy.” He was referring to Chávez, for whom he has felt devotion for 30 years, 12 after his death. Under that spell he was its vice president and chancellor.
The Chavista leadership, from the same night of July 28, when the minutes with the results began to arrive at the National Electoral Council (CNE), closed itself in itself and did not allow itself to be permeated by the more moderate voices within the movement that pointed that going to the opposition would not be the end or a surrender. Just a way to normalize local political life, regroup and return to power. Young people like Nicolás Maduro Guerra, the president’s son, advocated this path, as he told Morning Express in an interview.
The statements he made earned him scathing criticism from the number twoof Chavismo, Diosdado Cabello, with enough power to publicly scold Maduro’s only son. The old people, those who had known the commander well, were convinced that accepting defeat was betraying Chávez, spitting on his legacy. By virtue of this “emotional loyalty” to the Bolivarian revolution, Maduro took office without evidence of having received the approval of the majority of Venezuelans.
The president had been presenting live television programs for a week, just like Cabello. In this they have followed Chávez to the letter, who in one of the last years of his life was on the air for more than 1,000 hours. There he has charged against everything and everyone. The inauguration was the ideal scenario to continue along those lines. He accused his enemies of trying to turn the inauguration “into a world war.” “Whatever they say, they couldn’t prevent it. “It is a great victory for people who want peace.”
He used all the anti-imperialist, supposedly anti-fascist, anti-Spanish Chavista rhetoric he had on hand. He did not forget the president of Argentina: “The extreme right led by a Nazi Zionist, a sadist like Javier Milei. “He believes he can impose a president on Venezuela.”
Edmundo González did not appear, but Machado, the leader of the movement, did. She chose him as a candidate when he was banned from standing for election last year. In a matter of a week of campaigning, Edmundo González became enormously popular. Machado now said that it was better that as president-elect Edmundo González not risk his life and continue abroad while she lives in Caracas. Machado assured that Maduro had just consolidated “a coup d’état” in front of all Venezuelans. “He didn’t put the flag on his chest, but on his ankle like a shackle that tightens more every day,” he said in a very graphic way. Regarding the future of Edmundo González, he added: “He will come to Venezuela to be sworn in as constitutional president at the right time, when the conditions are appropriate.”
The United States was awaiting the consummation of the questioned proclamation to press the button and announce that it was raising the reward to 25 million dollars for information leading to the arrest of Maduro and Diosdado Cabello. It is the maximum allowed by law, there is no more, which puts them on the list of public enemies number one in Washington. That of the Minister of Defense, Vladimir Padrino, rises to 15. Maduro, oblivious, went to the military academy to continue his day. Although there is a man who has put on the band, the matter is by no means closed.
