The first thing greeting me as I disembarked from my flight in Caracas was a wanted poster for one Edmundo González Urrutia. The reward was $100,000. Not to be outdone, the US had slapped a $25 million bounty on the head of President Maduro and lesser amounts on other Venezuelan leaders.

By Roger D. Harris

Both González and the incumbent president, Nicolás Maduro, claimed that he would be the one to be inaugurated in two days. I had come to accompany the inauguration and for the concurrent antifascist festival.

History repeats itself – first tragedy, farce, and then silliness

From its inception with the election of Huge Chávez in 1998, the US has interfered in and attempted to overthrow by extra-legal means Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution. Tragically, US unilateral coercive measures (i.e., sanctions) alone have caused an estimated 100,000 deaths.

A short-lived US-backed coup in 2002 temporarily deposed Chávez. And all three elections of Nicolás Maduro (2013, 2018, 2024) were deemed “fraudulent” prior to the actual votes, on the unspoken grounds that only a candidate suitable to Washington could be legitimate.

Farcically, in 2019, the US recognized a 35-year-old security asset, who had never run for national office and was unknown to 80% of Venezuelans, as “interim president.” That lasted until 2023, when Juan Guaidó’s own opposition bloc gave the corrupt puppet the boot.

Washington’s machinations in the runup to the 2024 Venezuelan presidential election degenerated into just plain silliness.

The US designated María Corina Machado, from the opposition’s far-right insurrectionary fringe, as the “unified leader” of what in fact is a fractious gaggle of warring politicians.

Machado, as the US knew in advance, had been disqualified from running for office back in 2015 because of constitutionally mandated offenses. So she personally chose the completely unknown González, who had no political experience, as her surrogate without even the pretense of some public vetting process.

The infirm surrogate candidate spent the 2024 campaign convalescing in Caracas, running on the supremely unpopular platform of privatizing everything and realigning Venezuela’s foreign policy to mirror the US’s.

Unsurprisingly, the Venezuelan electoral authority, which was subsequently verified by their supreme court, found González lost with 43% of the vote compared to Maduro’s 52%. After all, shuttering public schools and hospitals, while cheering genocide in Palestine, is not exactly a winning ticket.

Equally unsurprisingly, Washington called “fraud.” González’s handlers claimed that they had “overwhelming” evidence that he won, which has been echoed in the corporate press. But to this day, González has failed to present that evidence to the Venezuelan authorities even though he was summoned to do so by their supreme court.

Instead, González voluntarily left Venezuela on September, undermining the already deflated far-right opposition.

The silliness continued four months after the election, when the Biden administration woke up and declared González to be “president-elect.” On cue, the hapless González pledged to return to Caracas on inauguration day to receive the presidential sash.

Massively pathetic

The far-right opposition had called for “massive” demonstrations the day before Maduro’s inauguration. Proof that these fizzled was the non-reporting in the western press of their pathetically small turnout and the huge demonstrations that same day in support of Maduro throughout the country.

Instead, the State Department-sycophantic press went into a hilarious frenzy reporting that Machado had been kidnapped, her guard mortally shot, etc…all of which proved to be embarrassingly fake news. Machado herself did make a brief public appearance before returning to self-imposed hiding.

World Antifascist Celebration was held concurrent with the presidential inauguration in Venezuela.

Antifascist celebration

Meanwhile on January 9, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez addressed over two thousand delegates from over 100 countries who had been invited to accompany the presidential inauguration and the concurrent World Antifascist Celebration. Elder westerners, such as myself, actually added diversity to the youthful and predominantly Global South assemblage.

Rodríguez warned: “There is no time to waste; we must fight united against fascism.” She cited the spread of fascism in Europe along with more local manifestations such as Argentine President Javier Milei and former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.

She contrasted this to a “new world being built” with BRICS and other Global South initiatives. Concluding with “we were born anti-imperialist, and our future is anti-imperialist,” she pledged support for the Palestian struggle.

Inauguration day

The next day, January 10, the presidential inauguration proceeded without incident. Maduro proclaimed: “I have never been, nor will I ever be, president of the oligarchies, of the richest families, of supremacists, or of imperialists. I have one ruler: the common people.”

On his much ballyhooed international “victory tour” of rightwing countries (including the US), González had repeatedly pledged to be in Caracas to be inaugurated. Instead, he returned to Washington where he reportedly got hit by an e-bike.

Washington and the folks that play-act as the “free press” continue to obsess about the results of last July’s election. In contrast, sentiment on the street in Venezuela is affirmative with a desire to move on.

Pres. Maduro comments on the beauty of the flags and banners at the antifascist festival, especially the Palestinian.

Maduro addresses the internationals

The following day, Maduro addressed the anti-fascist celebration, including large delegations from Russia, Cuba, and Iran. Looking out at a sea of wildly waving international flags, he commented on its beauty.

His address was repeatedly interrupted by spontaneous chants. He mentioned Cuba and soon the entire auditorium echoed “¡Bloqueo No! ¡Cuba Sí!” His very mention of the Middle East provoked “Free, Free Palestine!”

Maduro explained that history is written by the conquerors, but they have not been able to hide the resistance. Then he gave a history lesson on the anti-fascist struggle, starting with a homage to the Indigenous women leaders against Spanish colonialism. The US and the EU, he commented, do not like to be reminded of their colonial background “yet they still see us in the Global South as their servants.”

The Venezuelan president recalled the heroic victory over fascism, symbolized by planting the Soviet flag over the Reichstag 80 years ago. He commended the civil-military unity achieved in Venezuela.

Concluding, he pledged support for the liberation of Puerto Rico. He then invited representatives of the Cuban and Puerto Rican delegations on stage with their nearly identical flags to sing “Son de Cuba a Puerto Rico” on the deep connections between the two countries.

Following his address, the Venezuelan president awarded medals of honor to the supreme court president, ministers of defense and transportation, and other government officials who had been illegally sanctioned by the US the day before. They had had the temerity to support their constitutionally elected president, instead of González.

The antifascist celebration continued even after the official party departed. The auditorium erupted into a spirited mosh pit of people waving their national flags and dancing to “Nicolás Maduro el Gallo Pinto del Pueblo Venezolano,” the unofficial Maduro campaign song.

Puerto Ricans and Cubans at the antifascist festival with Pres. Maduro.

Propitious prospects for Venezuela

Forecasts are favorable for Venezuela’s quarter-century-old Bolivarian Revolution. Initiated by Hugo Chávez and seamlessly carried forward by Nicolás Maduro, it is threatened by an increasingly aggressive Yankee hegemon. Venezuela’s regional role will be pivotal with key left-leaning presidents in Brazil and Colombia up for reelection in the next two years.

The Venezuelan economy grew by more than 9% in 2024, the Venezuelan president reported in his annual address to the nation on January 15. “We have recovered the productive capacities of the country.” Alex Saab, the minister of industry and former US political prisoner, was credited with attracting $52 billion in new investments.

Some 85% of the items found in supermarkets are now domestically produced, something no other petro-state has ever achieved. Meanwhile inflation is the lowest in 12 years.

The president observed, “We came from inflation in February 2019…of 344,000%,” commenting on the remarkable economic turnaround combatting US sanctions. “Tell me which country endures that.” 2025 will be a year focused on protecting and boosting the purchasing power of workers.

Roger D. Harris is with the Task Force on the Americas and the US Peace Council. He accompanied the recent Venezuelan presidential inauguration and attended the concurrent World Antifascist Festival.