Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is sworn in despite credible evidence of election loss

Venezuelan President Maduro sworn in amid protests and allegations of electoral fraud, extending his rule until 2031.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was sworn in Friday (January 10, 2025) to serve a third six-year term, extending his increasingly repressive rule until 2031 despite protests and credible evidence that his opponent won the election.

Venezuela’s legislative palace, where he was sworn in and delivered a fiery speech, was heavily guarded by police, military and intelligence officers. Crowds of people, many sporting pro-Maduro T-shirts, gathered in adjacent streets and a nearby plaza.

Mr. Maduro accused the opposition of trying to turn his inauguration into a “world war,” and said the faction’s failure to stop the inauguration was “a great Venezuelan victory." He accused external powers of “attacking” Venezuela, specifically the U.S. government, and promised to guarantee “peace and national sovereignty.”

“Today more than ever I feel the weight of commitment, the power that I represent, the power that the constitution grants me,” he said. “I have not been made president by the government of the United States, nor by the pro-imperialist governments of Latin America.”

The opposition collected tally sheets from more than 80% of electronic voting machines following the July 28 election, posted the tallies online and said they show González won twice as many votes as Mr. Maduro. The U.S.-based Carter Center, which observed the election on the government’s invitation, declared the opposition-published tallies legitimate. Other election experts that the government allowed to witness the vote said polling records posted online by the opposition appear to exhibit all of the original security features.

On Friday, the European Union imposed sanctions on 15 top Venezuelan officials who had a role in the country’s 2024 election, including the president and vice president of Venezuela’s Supreme Court, the electoral agency and others. The 27-nation bloc said those officials have put the nation’s democracy at risk. The U.S. Treasury Department also slapped a new round of sanctions on Venezuelan officials, including the president of Venezuela’s state oil company, Maduro’s transportation minister and state-owned airline, among others.

On Thursday, as hundreds of anti-Maduro protesters took to the streets of the capital, Caracas, aides to opposition leader María Corina Machado said she was briefly detained by security forces and coerced into recording videos.