Sworn in, but isolated
Nicolás Maduro invested for second term, but performs investiture before Supreme Court, not Congress, as the executive doesn’t recognise him
Wearing black jeans, a white shirt and a red tie, the uniform of choice Hugo Chavez deployed at official ceremonies, Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, greeted Supreme Court judges one by one, as the Simón Bolívar National Symphonic Orchestra rang out in the background. There were balconies full of children dressed in identical outfits displaying the national colours. This environment was staged to kick off Maduro’s second term, which will last til 2025. It should have been held in Congress, but the executive is in the hands of the opposition, who don’t see Maduro’s election as legitimate. The government considers congress to be “in contempt” and has nullified all of its actions. Attendance at the inauguration ceremony made it obvious that Latin America has largely turned its back on Maduro: only the Bolivian Evo Morales, Salvadorian Salvador Ceren, Cuban Miguel Díaz-Canel, and Nicaraguan Daniel Ortega travelled to Caracas, and the biggest news agencies present were Russian and Chinese. Since yesterday, Venezuela has no diplomatic relations with the 13 countries that make up the Lima Group, led by Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia and Peru, who advanced that they would not recognise Maduro, and issued a statement banning access to their member states by high level members of his government. The EU and the USA followed with similar measures. Venezuela is isolated, submerged in an unprecedented economic crisis, with a diaspora of 2.5 million. The shift to the right in the region has reduced the list of governments that once supported Chavez and then refused to condemn Maduro.