Venezuela’s Maduro sworn in for third presidential term, pledges to form 'new democracy'

Venezuela’s incumbent President Nicolas Maduro has been sworn in for his third consecutive term in office months after electoral authorities announced him as the winner of the July 2024 presidential election.

President Maduro took the oath of office before parliament on Friday, vowing his third six-year term in office would be a "period of peace". 

He pledged to focus on working towards a stable and prosperous future for all Venezuelans.

"I swear that this new presidential term will be one of peace, prosperity, equality and new democracy. I swear it by history, I swear it on my life. I will keep my word." Maduro said in a speech during his inauguration.

"Say what you want, do what you must, but this constitutional investiture could not be stopped and is a great victory of democracy in Venezuela," Maduro said as he took the oath.

Crowds of people, many sporting pro-Maduro T-shirts, gathered in adjacent streets and a nearby plaza.

His followers erupted into cheers. One of them was Maricarmen Ruiz, 18, who couldn’t hold back her tears.

“I don’t have words to express my emotion, I’m happy,” she was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.

It is unclear how many heads of state attended Friday’s inauguration ceremony. Footage showed Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega and Cuba’s Miguel Diaz-Canel as Maduro greeted delegates from what he said numbered more than 120 nations.

Maduro was declared winner of the country’s presidential election on July 28 by electoral authorities. He secured 51 percent of the votes. Opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia obtained 44.2 percent of the votes.

Venezuela’s President Maduro wins third term: Electoral authority

Venezuela

The 2024 presidential election in the South American country was attended by over 800 international observers and watched closely around the world as Venezuela has been subject to US-led sanctions for over a decade now.

US hostility against Venezuela started more than two decades ago with the launch of the Bolivarian Revolution by late Venezuelan anti-imperialist and revolutionary leader Hugo Chavez, however, a more acute crisis unfolded during the mid-2010s as the Barack Obama administration subjected Caracas to extreme sanctions meant to destabilize the economy of the oil-rich country.

The consecutive US administrations followed Obama’s path, upping the ante with harsher sanctions and even failed mercenary plots.

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Maduro became president following the death of his mentor Hugo Chavez in 2013 and was re-elected in 2018 despite the US-orchestrated opposition.

Since November 2019, the US-led sanctions have pushed inflation in Venezuela to above 4,000 percent.

Maduro’s planning had driven down inflation by an impressive amount to just around 50 percent in a matter of four years.

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