Croix:

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who was sworn in for a third six-year term on Friday after elections accused of embezzlement, have been revoked several times during a tumultuous decade in power.

But the former bus driver stubbornly clings to the wheel.

With neither the charisma nor the flush oil revenues of his late revolutionary mentor Hugo Chavez, Maduro is accused of relying more and more on security forces to maintain control.

More than 2,400 people have been arrested, 28 killed and nearly 200 injured in a crackdown on protests that followed their disputed victory in last July’s election.

The violence echoes previous deadly crackdowns on the opposition in 2014, 2017 and 2019.

His third term could see him in power until 2031, a total of 18 years – four more than Chávez.

But he appears more isolated than ever on the international stage.

Only a handful of countries – including perennial allies Russia and Cuba – have recognized his re-election bid, with the US and several Latin American neighbors calling opposition figure Edmundo González Arrutia the country’s rightful leader.

The Poll Struggle

Tall, with a full mustache and slicked-back white hair, Maduro’s image is plastered on buildings across Venezuela, where he styles himself a man of the people.

He served as a lawmaker, foreign minister and vice president before Chávez chose his successor in 2013, three months before the socialist firebrand died of cancer.

The election of Maduro, who lacks Chavez’s rhetorical skills, raised eyebrows in the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).

He barely won his first election in 2013.

But it has averted crisis after crisis with the help of the military and paramilitary forces, even as the economy has been weighed down by falling oil prices, US sanctions and inflation.

Seven million Venezuelans – a quarter of the population – have voted with their feet and sought a better life abroad since he took power.

Baseball and salsa

Born in Caracas, Maduro is both a professional Marxist and Christian, and played guitar in a rock band as a teenager.

He is a baseball fan and dances salsa — often showing off the moves on state TV — with his wife, Celia Flores, a former prosecutor he calls “the first warrior.”

He has cast himself as an “activist president” and it has been claimed that he deliberately speaks slurred English so as not to appear superior.

As president, Maduro has faced many perceived and real threats — including a failed 2018 drone strike that injured several soldiers.

He escaped U.S. sanctions over his 2018 re-election bid, which was also tainted by allegations of fraud.

About 50 countries, including the United States, recognized Congress Speaker Juan Guaido as interim president, but his parallel government later collapsed.

Maduro has been aided by close political and economic ties with China and Russia, which have helped his country barely stay afloat.

To deflect blame for Venezuela’s misery, he has perpetuated Chavez’s anti-American conspiracy theories, accusing Washington of conspiring to kill him and Western nations for ever progressing. Ruining the economy.

All the while, it has closed channels for political dissent, shut out naysayers and challengers and disregarded due process.

Venezuela is under investigation by the International Criminal Court for rights violations.

But he has also shown himself to be adept at realpolitik.

He won an easing of US sanctions and other concessions by agreeing with the opposition to hold democratic elections in 2024.

But he refused the terms and some restrictions were lifted last April.

To promote his omnipresent real-life persona, Maduro has sought to endear himself to a long-term demographic through a popular TV and Internet cartoon character in his image.

Super-Bigote (Super-Mustache) is a hat-wearing superhero “at war with the Empire.”

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro



Source link