Venezuela: Opposition Promises to Swear In Its President in January

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado affirmed on Monday that opposition candidate Edmundo González will be “sworn in” as the new president of Venezuela on January 10, 2025, the day when the current term of socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro is slated to end.

Machado made her assertions in an interview given to the Spanish EFE news agency, claiming that González’s swearing in will occur on that day despite Maduro proclaiming himself the “winner” of the July 28 sham presidential election.

“Edmundo González will be the new head of state and the new commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces and that depends on what we all do, all Venezuelans inside and outside the country,” Machado said. “I trust the people of Venezuela and that is why I know that on January 10 we will have a new president.”

Maduro is presently at the tail end of his second six-year presidential term, which he secured after clinging to power in a highly fraudulent “election” held in May 2018. The socialist dictator is seeking to similarly maintain power after the July 28 election exercise, in which only handpicked “rivals” and González were allowed to run against Maduro.

Machado, a former lawmaker and the head of Venezuela’s only mainstream center-right party Vente Venezuela, was the opposition’s frontrunner candidate after obtaining an overwhelming victory in the opposition’s 2023 primary election process. The Maduro regime did not allow her to be on the ballot after the regime-controlled courts upheld a ban on her running for any public office to punish her support for human rights sanctions on the regime. 

The former lawmaker told EFE that González “overwhelmingly won” the July 28 sham election. Several countries and international organizations have questioned the legitimacy of the election in light of the Maduro regime not publishing any official data. Machado pointed out that the Carter Center — which Maduro had invited to observe the sham electoral event — has stated that the election “cannot be considered democratic.”

While Venezuela’s National Electoral Center (CNE) proclaimed Maduro the “winner” of the sham election, it has refused to publish any kind of documentation that can corroborate its claim that Maduro obtained roughly 51 percent of the votes cast on July 28.

Machado and other members of the Venezuelan opposition have repeatedly claimed to be in possession of vote tallies nationwide on July 28 that can demonstrate that Edmundo González defeated Maduro by a landslide. The opposition published digital copies of the tallies online in a manner similar to the Maduro regime in 2013, when the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) published tallies that allegedly demonstrated Maduro’s victory in that year’s snap presidential elections following the death of late socialist dictator Hugo Chávez.

Machado, who remains under protection due to threats issued against her and the Maduro regime’s recent opening of a criminal probe against her and González, criticized the CNE for failing to publish the claimed results of the elections and for violating its own schedule despite the numerous calls for transparency from the international community.

Machado assured EFE that the “whole world knows” that Maduro lost the July 28 election and that he is trying to carry out “the biggest fraud in history” by insisting on his alleged victory, with the help of the regime-controlled institutions and the country’s military leadership — which has pledged its “absolute loyalty” to the socialist dictator.

“[Maduro] today has zero legitimacy, no legitimacy at all and, therefore, it is a moment in which the international community has to set a very clear red line linked to respect for popular sovereignty,” Machado said.

Several countries, such as the United States and Argentina, have recognized González as the winner of the presidential election. The European Union has stated that, “without evidence to support them,” CNE’s results cannot be recognized and that the vote tallies published by the opposition indicate that González “would appear to be the winner of the Presidential elections by a significant majority.”

Machado stated that she expected foreign governments to “firmly and unequivocally make Maduro understand that what he is doing, using repressive forces against innocent citizens, is unacceptable.”

The former lawmaker also expressed that she foresees critical voices against the Maduro regime will continue to grow in the following days, stressing that it is a matter of applying “all the necessary pressure so that Maduro understands that his best option is to accept the terms of a negotiation.”

Nationwide peaceful protests erupted following CNE’s announcement of Maduro’s “victory.” The regime responded with a widespread crackdown on dissidents, growing internet censorship, and the establishment of “reeducation” camps for the detained dissidents.

The Maduro regime deployed the National Guard, the police, and other security forces to repress the protesters in addition to the colectivos, armed socialist gangs at the service of Maduro. The brutal repression has left at least 24 people dead according to non-government organization estimates, while Maduro has claimed that more than 2,000 Venezuelans have been detained by his regime’s security forces.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk expressed his “deep concern” over the ongoing situation in Venezuela, pointing out that more than 2,400 individuals have been arbitrarily detained by the Maduro regime during the protests. Turk made a call for the immediate release of the detainees, which include”human rights defenders, adolescents, people with disabilities, members of the opposition or those perceived to be connected to them, as well as people who served as electoral observers accredited by opposition parties in polling stations.”

“It is especially troubling that so many people are being detained, accused or charged either with incitement to hatred or under counterterrorism legislation. Criminal law must never be used to limit unduly the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association,” Türk said.

Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.