Nicolás Maduro will be sworn in for his third presidential term in Venezuela on Friday, despite opposition and international opposition challenges to the validity of the presidential elections held on July 28.
The Venezuelan head of state will begin his third six-and-a-half-year term with an inauguration ceremony on Friday, hosted by the Venezuelan Congress, which is controlled by the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), led by Maduro and founded by former President Hugo Chávez (1999-2013), his predecessor and political godfather.
Nicolás Maduro was proclaimed the winner of the July 28 presidential elections by the National Electoral Council, which did not make public the vote count at polling stations, claiming it was the victim of hacking.
The opposition, which published the records -- which the Venezuelan government says are false -- of 80% of the polling stations collected by its scrutineers, claims that the opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia obtained more than 67% of the votes and won the election.
The international community demanded the presentation of the electoral records, which the Venezuelan authorities did not do, generating great tension with several countries.
The Carter Center, a US-based organization that the Maduro government invited to observe the presidential elections, stated that the complaints made by the opposition are legitimate.
Maduro's victory - which follows the political legacy of "Chavismo", which represents 25 years of power in the country - was recognised by his traditional allies, namely Russia, China and Iran.
Countries ideologically close to Venezuela, such as Chile, Colombia and especially Brazil, expressed their reservations about the results of the presidential elections, resulting in a diplomatic crisis between Caracas and Brasilia, which vetoed Venezuela's entry into the BRICS group.
Venezuela severed diplomatic relations with Paraguay due to that country's alleged support for Venezuelan opponents. Chile withdrew its ambassador from Caracas and several Latin American countries will be represented only by diplomatic officials at Maduro's inauguration ceremony.
The United States, Argentina and Uruguay are some of the countries that recognise González Urrutia as the elected President of Venezuela. The European Union does not recognize Maduro’s victory, and on December 17, the European Parliament awarded González Urrutia the Sakharov Prize, and on September 19, it recognized him as the legitimate president of Venezuela. The Venezuelan opposition has called for demonstrations against Maduro’s inauguration, and González Urrutia has said he will return to the country after going into exile in Spain in September following an arrest warrant issued by a judge in Venezuela. Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who is in hiding in Venezuela, on Sunday urged her supporters to demonstrate across the country on Thursday to remove Maduro from office. It remains to be seen whether people will protest against Maduro on Friday, since the government’s post-election crackdown, including the arrest of some 2,400 people, has had a chilling effect, and even if opposition supporters decide to demonstrate, it is unclear who might lead them. The post-election riots of July 28th resulted in at least 28 deaths and two hundred injuries.
Edmundo González Urrutia, a former diplomat who has visited several countries and received support from various political leaders, reported on Tuesday that his son-in-law had been kidnapped in Caracas and was missing, generating support and calls for the release of Rafael Tudares from several international organizations and countries.
Nicolás Maduro, who received the formal support of the army, ordered the mobilization of military and police forces throughout the country as of Tuesday night, also denouncing plans to prevent his inauguration on Friday.
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