Outgoing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has been sworn in for a third term. The opposition and the European Union denounce an illegitimate investiture.
Outgoing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was sworn in this Friday for a third six-year term. An investiture that he described as “victory of democracy” in front of hand-picked guests, mainly his closest supporters and a few rare foreign heads of state, such as Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez.
“A coup d’état has been carried out”immediately reacted in a press release the main opposition coalition, Plataforma Unitaria, led by Edmundo González and María Corina Machado.
The United States quickly denounced “simulacrum” and imposed new sanctions against Caracas, including increasing the reward to $25 million for information leading to bringing the Venezuelan leader to justice.
The European Union also condemned this inauguration… The head of European diplomacy, Kaja Kallas, declared that “Maduro does not have the legitimacy of a democratically elected president” and regrets that the country’s authorities “did not respect” the will of the Venezuelan people.
The President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, was harsher, saying that “Maduro should be brought to justice and not take an illegitimate oath”. The European Parliament was the only European institution to recognize Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González as the country’s elected president.
He and María Corina Machado both received the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought last December.
Brussels also announced sanctions against 15 people “guilty of undermining democracy, the rule of law or human rights” in the country.
