CNN
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Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro has been sworn in for a third presidential term despite the protests of the country’s opposition movement, capping more than five months of dispute over last summer’s contested election.
The ceremony took place on Friday in a small room of the National Assembly, a marked difference from previous ceremonies held in the building’s main hall.
“We’ve achieved what we knew we would achieve,” Maduro said during his first speech after being sworn in.
“The power given to me was not given by a foreign government, a foreign president or a gringo government,” Maduro said at the event, which saw Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and Cuba’s Miguel Diaz-Canel in attendance. “No one in this world can impose a president in Venezuela.”
Maduro was proclaimed winner of the country’s presidential election on July 28, by electoral authorities under the tight control of the ruling Socialist Party. But Venezuela’s opposition published thousands of voting tallies claiming that their candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez, had actually won the vote with 67% against Maduro’s 30%.
Independent observers such as the Carter Center and the Colombian Electoral Mission, as well as CNN’s own analysis, have found the opposition tallies to be legitimate. And several nations, including the United States, have since recognized Gonzalez as Venezuela’s rightful president-elect.
González, who has been in exile since September with a bounty on his head by Venezuelan authorities, had pledged to return to Caracas this week in a potential last challenge to Maduro’s inauguration. His last known location on Friday was the Dominican Republic, where he had recently met with regional leaders.
Former Bolivian President Evo Morales expressed support for Maduro, writing on X that his nation “salutes the Venezuelan people who once again defeated attempts to destabilize their government.”
Ahead of the inauguration, Venezuela closed its land border and suspended flights to Colombia – a move that Freddie Bernal, the governor of the Venezuelan border state of Tachira claimed was in reaction to a “international conspiracy” against Venezuela in an Instagram post. He did not provide proof for his claim.
The border closure came just hours after Colombia broke its silence on the issue and announced it would not recognize the results of last summer’s elections, stating they were not free.
Venezuela’s former opposition leader Juan Guaidó has condemned the inauguration, writing on X that “the president of Venezuela is Edmundo González Urrutia.”
“Maduro only confirms his usurpation and the coup d’état they carried out on July 28,” Guaidó added.
Human Rights Watch Americas director Juanita Goebertus also criticized Maduro’s swearing as “the culmination of an election that blatantly disregarded the people’s will and consolidates a dictatorship only sustained by brutal repression.”
Protests erupted in Caracas and other Venezuelan cities ahead of the inauguration, with Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado emerging from hiding to speak at one event on Thursday.
Machado was later “violently intercepted” at the event, according to her team, which said that “during the period of her kidnapping she was forced to record several videos and was later released.” The Venezuelan government has denied detaining Machado.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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