Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro sworn in for a third term after disputed elections | News about Nicolas Maduro

the Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro he was sworn in for a third six-year term after a disputed election in which his opponent, Edmundo Gonzalez, claimed electoral fraud and declared victory.

Beginning his new term on Friday, Maduro is defying international pressure and sanctions led by the United States, which recognized Gonzalez as the winner of the July election.

“Let this new presidential term be a period of peace, prosperity, equality and a new democracy,” Maduro said, pledging to respect the country’s laws. “I swear on history, on my life, and I will fulfill it [my mandate].”

Maduro’s inauguration came a day after the opposition leader Maria Corina Machado he rarely appeared in public to lead a protest against his rule. Machada’s team said she was briefly detained during the protest.

“I am now in a safe place and more determined than ever to continue with you until the end,” Machado said in a social media post after her release.

Maduro, a former bus driver, came to power after the death of the leftist leader Hugo Chavez In 2013, his tenure was marred by accusations of authoritarianism, as well as economic and political crisis.

For example, 2018 faced another contested presidential election, with several leading opposition leaders barred from the race.

After that, the leader of the opposition Juan Guaido challenged Maduro’s victory and assumed the presidency. In 2019, the US and several of its allies in the Western Hemisphere recognized Guaido as the legitimate president of Venezuela.

That same year, Washington expanded its own broad sanctions against Venezuela, deepening its economic problems. Nearly 7.7 million people have left the country, some because of accusations of political repression, others because of economic instability.

Elections in July gave the opposition hope of peacefully ousting Maduro, but the incumbent quickly declared victory, claiming 51 percent of the vote.

The country’s electoral authorities sided with Maduro, although they did not release the usual breakdown of results from polling stations in Venezuela, prompting criticism of a lack of transparency.

Meanwhile, the opposition has released what it claims are official lists, which show that Gonzalez won by a wide margin.

Several leftist leaders in South America also criticized Maduro and questioned the election results.

Maduro’s victory in the presidential race on July 28 sparked widespread protests in the weeks after the results were announced, but a government crackdown has since silenced the protests.

An estimated 2,000 people were arrested and 25 killed during the post-election protests.

Still, the opposition has sought to keep pressure on Maduro’s government, calling for protests this week ahead of the inauguration. Several hundred protesters joined Machado on Thursday, although the crowd was noticeably smaller than at the post-election protests.

Maduro’s government accused the opposition of conspiring with foreign powers to oust the president and in September issued an arrest warrant for Gonzalez, who fled the country and has since been received asylum in Spain.

Gonzalez, a former diplomat, visited the US earlier this week and met with President Joe Biden as part of a tour of countries in the Americas region.

The White House said Gonzalez and Biden “expressed deep concern about the unacceptable and indiscriminate use of repression by Nicolas Maduro and his representatives against peaceful protesters, democratic activists and civil society.”

The US government called Gonzalez the “elect president” of Venezuela.