Venezuela’s Maduro takes new oath amid protests about disputed election

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was sworn in on Friday for a new term, extending his increasingly repressive rule in the face of renewed protests and rebukes from the United States and others who believe he stole last year’s vote.

Venezuela’s legislative palace, where he was sworn in and delivered a fiery speech, was heavily guarded by security forces who have become Maduro’s main hold on power since last summer’s disputed election. Crowds of people, many sporting pro-Maduro T-shirts, gathered in adjacent streets and a nearby plaza.

Maduro, likening himself to a biblical David fighting Goliath, accused his opponents and their supporters in the US of trying to turn his inauguration into a “world war”.

He said his enemies’ failure to block his inauguration to a third, six-year term was “a great victory” for Venezuela’s peace and national sovereignty.

“Today more than ever I feel the weight of commitment, the power that I represent, the power that the constitution grants me,” he said, after being draped with a sash in the red, yellow and blue of Venezuela’s flag.

“I have not been made president by the government of the United States, nor by the pro-imperialist governments of Latin America.”