President-elect Donald Trump issued a warning Friday ahead of the inauguration of rival Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who was elected to the top job for a third term.
Venezuela’s President Maduro is considered a “dictator” by US lawmakers, despite strong domestic and international opposition to the July election in which he claimed victory without providing evidence from the ballot box. The leaders are now set to remain in office until 2031.
On Thursday, opposition leader María Colina Machado emerged after months in hiding to join hundreds of anti-Maduro demonstrators in the capital, Caracas, demanding that opposition candidate Edmundo González be installed in her place.
On July 31, 2024, three days after his re-election debate, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro holds a press conference at the Miraflores Presidential Palace in Caracas, Venezuela. President Maduro has banned social network X from Venezuela for 10 days, accusing it of being used by the opposition to provoke post-election unrest. (AP Photo/Matthias Delacroix, File)
Two Americans arrested on “terrorism” claims in Venezuela on the eve of Maduro’s inauguration as president
Machado was briefly detained by government security forces after he “violently obstructed” a motorcade leaving the protest, according to the Associated Press.
President Trump demanded on social media that she remain “safe and alive.”
“Venezuela democratic activist María Colina Machado and President-elect Gonzalez are peacefully representing the voice and will of the Venezuelan people as hundreds of thousands of people demonstrate against the regime,” he wrote. “These freedom fighters should not be harmed, they should be safe.”
The rebel figure appears to have been forced to record several videos before being released, but details of those recordings remain unclear.
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Colina Machado speaks to supporters during a protest against President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela, on Thursday, January 9, 2025, the day before he was inaugurated for a third term. (AP Photo/Ariana Kubijos)
Thousands of Venezuelan opposition supporters take to the streets ahead of Maduro’s third inauguration
Maduro’s supporters reportedly denied Machado’s arrest.
On Friday, the Biden administration supported the efforts of opposition leaders, saying, according to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, that “President-elect Edmundo González Urrutia should take office and the democratic transition should begin.”
“Today, Mr. Nicolas Maduro held an illegal presidential inauguration in Venezuela in a desperate attempt to seize power. The Venezuelan people and the world know the truth. “He has lost the presidential election and has no right to claim the presidency,” he said. statement. “The United States rejects the National Election Commission’s fraudulent announcement that Maduro won the presidential election and does not recognize Nicolas Maduro as President of Venezuela.
“We stand ready to support Venezuela’s return to democracy,” Blinken added.
The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Friday imposed new sanctions against the Maduro regime, this time targeting “key economic and financial institutions that are enabling President Nicolas Maduro’s repression and destruction of democracy in Venezuela. It targeted “officials leading security agencies.”
Eight officials were named under sanctions, including Hector Obregon, who was recently appointed to head Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA, and the country’s Transport Minister Ramon Velazquez, the ministry said in a statement.
“Furthermore, OFAC is sanctioning senior Venezuelan military and police officials who lead organizations responsible for perpetrating President Maduro’s repression and human rights abuses against democracies,” the statement said.
Venezuelan opposition supporters react as they gather with fellow supporters ahead of President Nicolas Maduro’s third term inauguration in Caracas, Venezuela, January 9, 2025. (Reuters/Leonardo Fernández Viloria)
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Maduro has once again been targeted by U.S. sanctions, with the reward for information leading to his arrest or conviction increased to $25 million.
The same amount was offered to Diosdado Cabello, Venezuela’s Minister of Interior, Justice and Peace, and $15 million to Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino.
Members of the military and police were also named in the sanctions list.
Blinken acknowledged Friday that visa restrictions had been placed on about 2,000 Maduro supporters.
