January 10 was marked in red on all Venezuelan calendars. Especially since July 28, 2024, the day of the presidential elections. Nicolás Maduro and Chavismo saw the day as the inauguration day for a third term. The opposition, such as the date on which to respond to a proclamation by the National Electoral Council, later ratified by the Supreme Court, of a recount without electoral records to verify it. This was questioned by UN observers and the Carter Center, as well as by the countries of the European Union, which, however, have not gone as far as the United States or Argentina, which have recognized Edmundo González Urrutia as “president-elect.” ” from Venezuela, after the 2019 experience with the self-proclaimed Juan Guaidó.
Edmundo González himself also proclaimed himself this Friday as “president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela” in a video published on his social networks and recorded from outside the country. González has demanded obedience to the army “as commander in chief.”
González, who in recent months had defended that as of January 10 he would go to Venezuela to assume the presidency, has not appeared in the country. As explained in the video, work is being done “on the conditions that allow his return.” “The decision to close the borders sought to do with me in the air what they did yesterday with our leader,” he assured in reference to the arrest of María Corina Machado denounced by the opposition and denied by the Government.
Since July 28, a series of political movements have taken place with an eye on January 10: the most relevant was the departure of Edmundo González from Venezuela to Spain, a country to which he requested political asylum – and which was granted – , for which he negotiated his departure with the Venezuelan Government at the Spanish embassy in Caracas. Negotiations that included the mediating role of former Spanish president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and the constant disqualification of Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s PP, which caused González Urrutia himself to issue a statement of gratitude to the Spanish Government.
The departure of Edmundo González from Venezuela on September 8 suggested that the 75-year-old former opposition candidate was distancing himself from Venezuelan politics. But, as the days went by, and given the impossibility of the opposition to promote its main leader in the interior, María Corina Machado, who was disqualified, González began to receive the support of governments such as that of Javier Milei – as well as the right. and the European extreme right – and that of Joe Biden to be recognized as “president-elect”, which led the former opposition candidate to dispute the institutional legitimacy of Maduro encouraged by his own political ranks.
And, for that, January 10 was the key date.
González Urrutia collected the Sakharov Prize from the European Parliament in December, less than a month ago, and avoided revealing, in conversation with elDiario.es, what the plan for an investiture that he was announcing for himself would be. How would I enter the country? How could he be invested when Venezuelan institutions did not seem to present any cracks in relation to the Maduro Government? “Administrative and practical arrangements must be made that involve return. As of January 10, we aspire to be in Venezuela,” he simply said.
The mystery remained for months, in parallel with the unknown whereabouts of Machado, for whom there was also an arrest warrant from the Prosecutor’s Office for treason.
The opposition expected a January of massive mobilizations, and, above all, of cracks in the Army and the police large enough to abort Maduro’s investiture and place Edmundo González in his place. But that has not ended up happening: neither have there been massive mobilizations that have overwhelmed Chavismo nor have the country’s de facto powers abandoned Maduro in favor of González and Machado.
And, finally, January 10 has arrived.
And Nicolás Maduro has been inaugurated in the absence of records that ratify his electoral victory on July 28 – which, however, is not a problem for the West when it comes to the Morocco that protects the Melilla fence, the Saudi Arabia of the Super Cup of football or China for which the Government asks that community tariffs not be applied to its electric cars, for example. Maduro has been inaugurated even two hours ahead of schedule, with few international leaders – beyond the presidents of Cuba and Nicaragua, Miguel Díaz Canel and Daniel Ortega, and with criticism from the Colombian Gustavo Petro and the Chilean Gabriel Boric – and appealing to the turbulent times that the country is experiencing. “We have achieved what we knew we were going to achieve,” he said in his first speech after taking office. “The people of Venezuela defeated imperialism and its diplomacy of deception and now they do not know how to take revenge, the outgoing US government does not know how to take revenge on our people. “They couldn’t beat us.”
Hours later, María Corina Machado announced in a video recorded and broadcast on her Instagram that Edmundo González would definitely not be sworn in as president of Venezuela. “Today Maduro has consolidated a coup d’état, violating the Constitution, it is time to do whatever is necessary to restore it. Have no doubt, this is over.” The opposition leader has also stated that this Thursday’s protests in favor of the investiture of Edmundo González Urrutia ratified her “deep confidence” that “the freedom” of the country “is close.”
“We have been in permanent communication with Edmundo González Urrutia. Edmundo will come to Venezuela to be sworn in as constitutional president at the right time, when the conditions are right,” Machado said: “In its delirious paranoia, the regime has closed the airspace and activated the air defense system. We have analyzed all this and we have decided that it is not convenient for him to enter Venezuela today: I have asked him not to do so, his integrity is fundamental for the defeat of the regime and the transition to democracy, which is very close.
Machado has recorded his video from an undetermined location in Venezuela after this Thursday he starred in an event reported by his family first as “kidnapping” or “interception” by the police after reappearing in public, after 133 days in hiding, in a concentration of the opposition in Caracas.
The Government denied having detained her, and released a recorded video in which she claimed to be free. This Friday, in his video recorded and broadcast on his networks, Machado gave his version of that event: “When I left the concentration, I got on a motorcycle. They tried to intercept police devices, I heard several shots, the police motorcycles intercepted us. She was immediately pulled off the motorcycle and put on another one, in the middle of two men. To let me go, they made me record a video as a reason to live.” Machado has also said that one of his companions was shot in the leg in that episode: “Their erratic actions show how very divided they are.” The opposition’s argument is that there was an arrest by the police that was later revoked by the Government.
EU and US sanctions
The EU and the United States have approved new sanctions against Venezuela coinciding with the inauguration of Nicolás Maduro, whose legitimacy as president is not recognized by either the 27 or Washington. Almost at the same time that the Bolivarian leader was sworn into office, in the absence of representation from the majority of countries, Brussels and Washington issued separate statements with the incorporation of new individuals to the lists of sanctioned Venezuelans. In this case, these are people who have legitimized the electoral result, such as representatives of the Supreme Court or the Electoral Council.
The 27 have added 15 new people to the list of those sanctioned. These are representatives of the National Electoral Council (CNE) of Venezuela, such as the general secretary, Antonio Meneses Rodríguez, the vice president, Carlos Enrique Quintero, among others, from the judicial branch, including the president of the Supreme Court, Caryslia Beatriz Rodríguez; and the security forces. Kallas maintains that they are “individuals responsible for undermining democracy, the rule of law or human rights in Venezuela” and that the sanctions do not harm the economy or the people of Venezuela.
The US authorities express themselves in similar terms. “Since last year’s election, Maduro and his associates have continued their repressive actions in Venezuela,” Acting Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Bradley T. Smith said: “The United States, along with our like-minded partners, stands in solidarity with the vote of the Venezuelan people for a new leadership and rejects Maduro’s fraudulent claim to victory.”
The sanctions, however, vary slightly, although they are also justified in “repression” and the electoral process. The US includes the president of the state oil company, Héctor Andrés Obregón Pérez; the Minister of Transportation, Ramón Celestino Velásquez; the Vice Minister of the Interior, Félix Ramón Osorio Guzmán, Félix Ramón Osorio Guzmán; among other senior officials.
The announcement by the outgoing Biden Government comes at a time when the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, has demanded that the Venezuelan opponents María Corina Machado and Edmundo González, whom he defines as “freedom fighters,” remain “alive and safe.” ”
“Venezuelan democracy activist María Corina Machado and president-elect (Edmundo) González are peacefully expressing the voices and will of the Venezuelan people as hundreds of thousands of people protest against the regime,” Trump wrote in a message on his social network, Truth Social. “These freedom fighters should not be persecuted, they have to stay alive and safe!” adds Trump.
In his message, the Republican leader affirms that “the large Venezuelan community in the United States overwhelmingly supports a free Venezuela” and assures that they supported him in the US elections.
Venezuela has cleared up the uncertainty of what could happen this January 10, and is now entering a new time with questions to clear up: Will the new Trump administration apply a tough policy in line with its tone and how far will it go? What will happen to the opposition, after the failed operation to invest González Urrutia this Friday and after the experience of past leaders? What will happen to Chavismo, after 12 years without Chávez and now that Maduro enters his third six-year term?
For now, Maduro has revalidated his mandate against an opposition that has not been able to comply with the announced investiture of its electoral leader, Edmundo González Urrutia in Venezuela.
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