Venezuela on tenterhooks ahead of Maduro swearing-in / Photo: LUIS ROBAYO - AFP
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Venezuela on tenterhooks ahead of Maduro swearing-in
Tensions mounted in Venezuela ahead of strongman Nicolas Maduro's swearing-in ceremony, with Caracas vowing Monday to arrest exiled opposition figure Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia -- widely recognized as the country's legitimate president-elect -- if he returns home.
The threat came as Gonzalez Urrutia, on an international tour to ramp up pressure on Maduro to relinquish power, met US President Joe Biden in Washington.
Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who was barred from facing Maduro at the polls and has been in hiding since the July 28 election which Gonzalez Urrutia claims to have won, said "all the regime has left is fear," in an interview with AFP.
She has called for mass protests on Thursday, on the eve of Maduro's inauguration for a third, six-year term at the helm of the Caribbean country.
In Washington, Gonzalez Urrutia told reporters after seeing Biden that he had thanked him for US support "in this struggle for the democratic recovery of Venezuela."
Asked whether Biden backed his objective of returning to Venezuela, Gonzalez Urrutia said after Monday's meeting: "He accompanies me in spirit."
But on Monday, Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello vowed the opposition figure "will be arrested and tried if he sets foot in Venezuela."
The Venezuelan opposition has released a large set of polling station data it says proves their candidate overwhelmingly won a presidential vote which the loyalist electoral council awarded to Maduro without releasing a detailed vote breakdown.
The United States, G7 countries, and several Latin American nations have rejected Maduro's victory claim and recognized Gonzalez Urrutia as Venezuela's legitimate president-elect.
The 75-year-old former diplomat, who found exile in Spain after a warrant was issued for his arrest, has vowed to return home to take power on Friday, when Maduro is set to be sworn in.
In Washington, Biden "reiterated his support for Venezuela’s democratic aspirations and underscored the US commitment to continue to hold Maduro and his representatives accountable for their anti-democratic and repressive actions," a White House statement said.
It was not known if Gonzalez Urrutia also met Donald Trump, who succeeds Biden as president on January 20, or his choice for secretary of state, Marco Rubio -- a staunch Maduro opponent.
Gonzalez Urrutia said "our teams are in contact with the teams of President Trump."
- Call to 'overcome fear' -
Machado, speaking to AFP by telephone, said she would take to the streets herself in Venezuela on Thursday.
"If we all come out, millions, how can a few hundred or a few thousand armed people (prevail) against 30 million Venezuelans? In the end, the only way to be free is to overcome fear," she said.
The wildly popular Machado, 57, had won an opposition primary by a wide margin, but Gonzalez Urrutia stepped in to replace her at the last minute when institutions loyal to Maduro said she could not run.
Mass protests that broke out following Maduro's victory claim were met with a crackdown that left at least 28 people dead, some 200 hurt and more than 2,400 arrested.
The prosecutor's office said Monday that about 1,500 of those detained have since been freed.
Protests have largely petered out in a society browbeaten by economic hardship and, rights groups say, a campaign of political repression.
Caracas recently passed a law punishing support for sanctions against the Maduro regime with up to 30 years in prison.
- 'Loyalty, obedience' to Maduro -
On a foreign tour that took him to Argentina and Montevideo, Gonzalez Urrutia called Sunday for the Venezuelan military to recognize him as commander-in-chief.
But his appeal was "categorically" rejected Monday in a statement read on TV by Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino, who reiterated the armed forces' "loyalty, obedience and subordination" to Maduro.
On Monday, Caracas cut diplomatic ties with Paraguay after Asuncion voiced support for Maduro's opposition rival. Asuncion, in response, expelled Venezuelan diplomatic personnel.
Caracas had already severed relations with several Latin American countries that have accused Maduro of a power grab.
More than seven million of once-wealthy Venezuela's 30 million citizens have emigrated since Maduro first came to power in 2013.
Z.Bianchi--IM
