Caracas, May 21
\nVenezuela\u2019s socialist President Nicolas Maduro faced international condemnation on Monday after his re-election in a vote foes denounced as a farce that cemented autocracy in the crisis-stricken oil-producing nation.<\/p>\n
Maduro, 55, hailed his win in Sunday\u2019s vote as a victory against \u201cimperialism,\u201d but his main rival alleged irregularities and refused to recognise the result.<\/p>\n
Venezuela\u2019s mainstream opposition boycotted the election, given that two of its most popular leaders were barred from running. Turnout was under 50 per cent.<\/p>\n
Thousands of Maduro supporters, many wearing red berets, hugged and danced outside the Miraflores presidential palace, showered in confetti in the yellow, blue and red colours of the Venezuelan national flag.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe revolution is here to stay!\u201d a jubilant Maduro told the crowd, promising to prioritise economic recovery after five years of recession in the OPEC nation of 30 million people. \u201cLet\u2019s go, Nico!\u201d his supporters chanted until after midnight during party scenes in downtown Caracas.<\/p>\n
Senior US State Department officials declared Sunday\u2019s vote a \u201csham\u201d and repeated threats to impose sanctions on Venezuela\u2019s all-important oil sector, which is already reeling from falling output, a brain-drain and creaking infrastructure.<\/p>\n
Spain, which has led European Union criticism of Maduro, also weighed in. \u201cVenezuela\u2019s electoral process has not respected the most basic democratic standards. Spain and its European partners will study appropriate measures and continue to work to alleviate Venezuelans\u2019 suffering,\u201d tweeted PM Mariano Rajoy.<\/p>\n
In a blistering statement, the 14-nation \u201cLima Group\u201d of countries in the Americas from Canada to Brazil, said it did not recognise the legitimacy of the vote and would be downgrading diplomatic relations. The group deplored Venezuela\u2019s \u201cgrave humanitarian situation\u201d behind a migrant exodus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Caracas, May 21 Venezuela\u2019s socialist President Nicolas Maduro faced international condemnation on Monday after his re-election in a vote foes denounced as a farce that cemented autocracy in the crisis-stricken oil-producing nation. Maduro, 55, hailed his win in Sunday\u2019s vote as a victory against \u201cimperialism,\u201d but his main rival alleged irregularities and refused to recognise […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31782,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31781"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31781\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31783,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31781\/revisions\/31783"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}