Venezuelan Dictator Maduro’s Inauguration Is Today Despite Losing Election. Opposition Surges.

Venezuelan socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro, who has presided over the ruination of his country, will likely be inaugurated again as president on Friday despite evidence of having lost a July election to retired diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia and opposition mounting.

Meanwhile, Maduro has been brutalizing the opposition. “The regime arrested more than 2,000 dissidents after the July election controversy triggered mass demonstrations,” The Wall Street Journal reported. “This week, regime forces arrested González’s son-in-law, Rafael Tudares, along with Carlos Correa, who is one of Venezuela’s most prominent advocates for freedom of expression.”

Opposition leader María Corina Machado was briefly detained on Thursday after she finally reappeared following months in hiding from the government’s secret police. Machado appeared at an East Caracas demonstration protesting Maduro’s imminent inauguration; she stated, “All this strength that we have built and that grows every day prepares us to finish this final phase. Whatever they do tomorrow, they will be completely buried.”

Machado’s party, Vent Venezuela, reported on X, “Today, leaving the rally in Chacao, Caracas, María Corina Machado was intercepted and knocked off the motorcycle she was riding. Firearms were fired during the incident. She was taken away by force. During the period of her kidnapping she was forced to record several videos and was later released.”

Earlier this week, Gonzalez, whom Maduro threatened with arrest if he returned to Venezuela, traveled to Washington D.C., where he met with incoming National Security Advisor Mike Waltz. He then went to Argentina and Panama with the ballots from the July election to prove he had won. “We elected by a landslide, a good man and Edmundo Gonzalez. We have the proof of that victory, and the whole world knows it,” Machado told Fox News. “We won.”

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“What we need is for all American institutions [to] understand that Venezuela is the most important conflict in the Western Hemisphere for national security of the U.S.,” Machado said. “We can be the best ally the United States will have in the Americas, first of all, because we also are desperate to solve the migration problem in our region. We want those Venezuelans to come back in billions and voluntarily. And that will happen when they’ll see there’s a future in their country. … Maduro has lost everything but fear and repression. Maduro lost all popular support, all legitimacy, and even he’s weakened or isolated internationally. What has he left? Russia, Iran, Hezbollah.”

“The regime has sent secret police units to encircle her family members’ homes, sent a drone over her mother’s house, and kidnapped President-elect Gonzalez’s brother-in-law on Tuesday,” Fox News noted.

In addition, Hezbollah has provided support to Maduro’s regime, according to the Atlantic Council. “Too often, Hezbollah in Venezuela is characterized as only a potential terrorist threat. In reality, the Lebanese terrorist group has helped to turn Venezuela into a hub for the convergence of transnational organized crime and international terrorism. Hezbollah’s crime-terror network in Venezuela has facilitated Iran’s cooperation with the Maduro regime,” the Atlantic Council has reported.

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