By day’s end, after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was officially inaugurated on Jan. 10 for a third term, the Biden administration increased a bounty on Maduro’s head, offering $25 million “for his capture,” up from a previous $15 million.
The U.S. Treasury Department, the European Union and Great Britain also imposed new sanctions the same day on President Maduro, on the Minister of Public Power for Defense and Peace Diosdado Cabello, on all members of Venezuela’s Supreme Court and on high officials of the military.
The open call to assassinate a head of state — as well as the sanctions— are an outrageous violation of international law. But they are also a sign of desperation by U.S. imperialism in its latest failure to destabilize and overthrow the Venezuelan government.
The people celebrate Maduro’s inauguration
As Maduro was being sworn in, many tens of thousands of Venezuelans marched in support, massively filling 10 avenues as they headed to Miraflores Presidential Palace to celebrate and hear Maduro speak. More than 10,000 motorcycle riders, “motorizados,” filled the streets as well.
With the swearing in as dictated by the Constitution in the National Assembly, Maduro spoke before the National Assembly, to the leaders of Venezuela’s Public Powers, the Supreme Court and invited dignitaries.
Maduro said, “In front of the visitors and delegates of 125 countries, I swear for the historic, noble and seasoned people of Venezuela, that I will complete all of this Constitution’s mandates, I will carry out all of its obligations, the laws of the Republic and I swear that this new presidential period will be of peace, prosperity, equality and new democracy. I swear this for history, I swear it on my life.”
To the government’s detractors, he said, “Say what they want, do what they will, but this constitutional investiture cannot be stopped. It is a great victory for democracy in Venezuela.” The official election results of the National Electoral Council was 51.95% for Maduro and 43.18% for González.
For more than 25 years since Hugo Chávez won an historic presidential election and launched the Bolivarian Revolution, U.S. imperialism has waged a multi-pronged campaign — coup attempts, crippling economic sanctions and terrorism. Almost 95% of the country’s income, derived from its oil industry, has been paralyzed for years because of the illegal, unilateral economic measures.
Despite more than 30 popular referenda and national elections, Washington has never accepted as legitimate the election outcome, except for one, when the right-wing opposition won the majority of seats in the National Assembly, in December 2015. The pro-revolution delegates won the assembly’s majority in 2020.
The U.S. and allies’ plots continue
U.S. hostility to Maduro intensified during the 2024 Venezuelan presidential electoral period. Maduro was the candidate for the GPP, the Grand Patriotic Pole of several progressive parties, including his party, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).
Edmundo González Urrutia, candidate of the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD) received the open backing of U.S. imperialism as its main hope to defeat Maduro. In reality, María Corina Machado was the virtual candidate, often giving speeches instead of him, proposing for example the re-privatization of Venezuela’s oil.
A leader of the right-wing extremist party Vente Venezuela, Machado has long promoted terrorist violence. She joined the coup plotters who overthrew President Chávez on April 11, 2002. Chávez was restored to power two days later by the masses and loyal military officers. In 2018 and 2020, Machado demanded that the National Assembly ask for foreign military invasion.
Machado worked through González’s campaign because she was convicted in 2018 — and thus disqualified from running as a candidate. As a member of the National Assembly, she had blatantly violated Venezuela’s Constitution when she accepted a post as representative of Panama at the Organization of American States.
In the days before the inauguration, González, living in exile in Spain, flew to Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Panama and the United States, where he received support in the White House. In Argentina, rightwing extremist President Javier Milei guaranteed González, “We are doing what the cause of freedom requires, nothing more and nothing less.”
Then days before the inauguration, several Latin American ex-presidents, all allied with Washington — Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderón of Mexico, Álvaro Uribe and Andrés Pastrana of Colombia, Jorge Mahuad of Ecuador, Mario Abdo of Paraguay, Mireya Moscoso and Ernesto Pérez-Balladares of Panama, among others — publicly announced they would come to Venezuela to accompany González for his “inauguration.”
Against this illegal and last-ditch plot, Diosdado Cabello declared that the ex-presidents were persona non-grata and would be arrested if they entered, for violating Venezuela’s sovereignty and laws. A similar arrest order was issued for González. None of them entered the country.
On January 9, Machado again called on supporters to fill the streets. A total of only a few thousand responded in the whole country. The biggest turnout in Caracas filled just a street block.
From the White House and western media, the accusation of government repression has been repeated continuously. But these days in Caracas, the streets are peaceful as people go about their daily lives.
Stranger than fiction: Fake arrest makes headlines in the West
The day before the inauguration of Maduro, the Western press published screaming headlines accusing the government of arresting Machado.
The New York Times headline claimed, “Venezuela’s Opposition Leader Is Forcibly Detained and Then Released.” CNN, The Washington Post, Miami Herald, El País of Spain, and other western media repeated this fake news. No such thing happened, but retractions were never published.
Celebration at Miraflores Presidential Palace
Before Maduro appeared on inauguration day, crowds danced and sang, excited to welcome him.
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega appeared on stage with Maduro. Ortega noted that “the immense majority here are youth.” He saluted them “for their commitment, their conscience, their dedication to study, to the social struggles for sovereignty and struggle for independence. That is the magic of youth.”
The people assembled raised their right hand as they took a collective oath to defend Venezuela and its revolution.
Maduro said, “A new and different world has been born. To the old empires, criminal colonialists of Europe, they think they will give us lessons in democracy? Those who brought slavery, colonialism?”
The right-wing opposition, has become increasingly fractured despite U.S. multiple attempts to unite the disparate elements. But the danger emanating from Washington remains.
The international conference against international fascism, January 9 to 12, brought more than 2,000 international delegates from 125 countries, including large delegations from Cuba and Russia, in solidarity with Venezuela’s revolution. The conference issued a declaration, committing to organizing the struggle against fascism and to defending Venezuela’s sovereignty.
