Caracas Chronicles

We’ve been going back and forth on how to define what happened today. Nicolás Maduro was sworn in for a third term (2025-2031) before his National Assembly president after losing the presidential election by around 4 million votes, as official tally sheets gathered by the opposition show. Can this be called an oath of office, an inauguration? Well, truthfully, no. This is a constitutional coup. Today’s event will be remembered as nothing but the biggest blow yet to the Bolivarian Constitution championed by late president Hugo Chávez in 1999.

Let’s remember that Maduro’s last term was also illegitimate and unrecognized by several countries: he was reelected in 2018 through a process summoned by an illegitimate institution, the 2017 Constituent Assembly, which displayed the ban, exile and arrest of dozens of opposition politicians. So this is the second de facto government he is starting, this time by perpetrating the most obvious and massive election fraud in the Americas this century. What is worse, the National Assembly that swore him in suffers from deep legitimacy problems as well. 

The rather fast inauguration took place two hours before schedule, in the Oval Room of the Capitol, rather than the main chamber of the National Assembly, where it is normally held. The Oval Room, where the ceiling is covered by a large painting of the Battle of Carabobo by Martin Tovar y Tovar, is usually used for protocolary events and is smaller. 

No independent reporters, only camerapeople, were allowed. Miguel Díaz-Canel and Daniel Ortega, the ruling autocrats of Cuba and Nicaragua, were the only heads of state present in the ceremony. Ortega arrived in the room during Maduro’s swearing-in, despite Vice President and First Lady Rosario Murillo’s earlier announcement that the Nicaraguan rulers would not attend. Maduro was also accompanied by the high command of the military, starting with general Vladimir Padrino López, who continues as Defense Minister since 2013. Politicians like Timoteo Zambrano were there, smiling. Diosdado Cabello, hawk-in-chief of the chavista alliance, and current Interior Minister in charge of sustaining Maduro through blunt force, was saluted by an intense round of applause: a man of the hour, at least as much as the protagonist of the event. 

Maduro took the oath before Jorge Rodríguez. After placing his jeweled hand over a hardcover copy of the Constitution, Maduro swore in the name of several independence heroes and historical figures as well as in the name of Hugo Chavez. He mentioned the Venezuelan people three times and promised a “new democracy.” 

“I was sworn in for the first time before the National Assembly, and the then-president of that Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, administered the oath. We were heartbroken after bidding farewell to the immortal Hugo Chávez,” Maduro told attendees during his speech after taking the oath. “The presidential sash they placed on me was his, because I swore absolute loyalty to him.”

“They tried to turn a Venezuelan presidential election into a global election, and they failed, they failed. We beat you,” Maduro continued, referring to the outgoing Biden administration. “We weren’t born on the day of traitors and cowards; we will always prevail under any circumstances.”

Maduro insisted on organizing parliamentary and regional elections soon this year, and promised to set up a commission today to reform the 1999 Constitution, in order to “update it” to protect the Venezuelan family from social media, among other things. 

In a statement published on X, the Unitary Platform said the country has entered a new phase in the struggle for democracy and freedom: “We must instill a permanent and active democratic resistance, until the national constitution is respected, especially the popular sovereignty.”

As the performance ended, the U.S. Treasury Department announced an increase in the bounty to $25 million (from $15 million) for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Maduro and Cabello. Additionally, a new $15 million bounty was introduced for Padrino López,  the key figure supporting Maduro’s illegitimate hold on power. The U.S. previously announced a fresh list of sanctions against eight members of Maduro’s cabinet and security apparatus, which includes PDVSA President Héctor Obregón and CICPC chief Douglas Rico. The European Union also sanctioned 15 senior Maduro loyalists, among them SEBIN Director Alexis Rodríguez Cabello (a cousin of Diosdado), National Guard Commander Elio Estrada Paredes, and General Domingo Hernández Lares, who oversees the strategic command of Venezuela’s armed forces. The British and Canadian governments are also announcing individual sanctions as we publish this report.

U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken recently tweeted that Maduro had no rightful claim to the presidency today, and that Washington stands ready “to support a return to democracy in Venezuela.” For the first time since his November election win, Donald Trump expressed his support for Edmundo González and María Corina Machado on Thursday, hours after the latter was taken by security agents and quickly released while leaving an opposition rally in Caracas.

A constitutional tongue twister

So what do we call this? According to the Venezuelan Constitution, the new president is required to take the oath before the Venezuelan legislature. If this is not possible, the highest court could perform the inauguration.

That’s what the constitution says.

Now… What would happen if the legislature and the highest court refused their constitutional duty? There is no written rule to this regard, but the constitutional principle of administrative continuity could apply—and the sitting president could remain in the seat until the situation is resolved. But this is not the case. In this case, the legislature inaugurated a president that didn’t win. There is no precedent or written rule to move forward. They’ve created an impossible situation. Technically it is in fact a constitutional coup. So yeah, we can and should call this a coup by Maduro & Co.

Now, the big question: how can Edmundo González, who holds evidence of his win, be inaugurated? He has two options at this point. Continue his advocacy of the Venezuelan cause as president elect without being inaugurated or, while this may irk many folks, he could be inaugurated by the Delegate Commision of the 2015 National Assembly, which is still active and holds control over Venezuelan assets abroad and some kind of recognition too. The options are quite limited since, as we mentioned before, this is a constitutional coup. 

There is a remaining third option, of course, one that requires that a bunch of folks who swore to defend the constitution uphold that oath.

María Corina’s team has announced that the opposition leader will speak by 2 pm (Caracas time), live for the first time since yesterday’s strange events. To this hour, we have no reports of social unrest in Venezuela.