Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro He has announced his plan to move Christmas to October to divert public attention from the ongoing political turmoil following the disputed presidential election.
“This is further proof that he is desperate to divert people’s attention from the fraud that took place on election day and the terrible repression we saw in the month that followed,” Venezuelan OSINT analyst Daniel Acosta Rivas told Fox News Digital.
“It’s not enough that he oppresses us, he mocks us,” Rivas said. “Just as he can declare himself the winner of an election without proof, he can also say at will that Jesus was born on October 1 and that we should celebrate that day. He’s desperate, or he’s mocking us — or both.”
Maduro made the bizarre announcement on his weekly television program on Monday and described the decision as a “tribute” to the US government. The People of Venezuela,
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“September has arrived and the scent of Christmas has begun to waft,” Maduro said. “So this year, as a tribute to all of you and to show my gratitude to all of you, I am deciding to celebrate Christmas early, on October 1.”
Whatever joy Maduro wanted his strategy to bring, it did the opposite. “Without money and with their political crisis, who can believe Christmas will come early?” one office worker in the capital, Caracas, told The Associated Press.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro votes during the presidential election in Caracas on July 28, 2024. (Juan Barreto/AFP via Getty Images)
Jorge Zaraisati, a Venezuelan foreign policy expert and president of the Economic Inclusion Group, told Fox News Digital that he was “tempted to believe that Maduro’s irrational mind led him to start celebrating Christmas in October,” but that he “cannot deny that stories like this portray Maduro as a silly character who diverts people’s attention from the real problems in our country: the fact that our political institutions have been hijacked, our economy has been destroyed, and millions of people have left our country in search of a normal life.”
This announcement has been made after international condemnation of Maduro’s decision. Issuing an arrest warrant For his rival Edmundo Gonzalez, whom the international community supports as the rightful winner of the July 28 election, despite Maduro and his party insisting to the contrary.
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“Maduro and his proxies cannot indefinitely suppress the legitimate aspirations of the Venezuelan people and maintain power by force,” US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said. A press release said“The will of the people and their rights must be respected.”
“We reiterate our call for the immediate and unconditional release of those who have been unjustly detained,” the statement said. “The way forward must be a peaceful, transparent and inclusive democratic transition process that puts the well-being of the Venezuelan people at its center.”
A supporter chants slogans during a protest against the result of the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, on July 30, 2024. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was declared the winner of the 2024 presidential election over his rival Edmundo Gonzalez. (Jesus Vargas/Getty Images)
Protests break out across Venezuela The country’s Maduro-controlled National Electoral Council declared him the winner of the presidential election, even though reporting and voting data — which is illegal in the country — indicated a landslide victory for his united opposition.
Maduro first took office in 2013, but many inside and outside the country have accused him from the beginning of ruling the United Socialist Party of Venezuela as a de facto dictatorship, leading opposition parties to boycott the 2018 election and then decide to unite behind opposition candidate González.
Opponents of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s government protest in the Petare neighborhood of Caracas on July 29, 2024, a day after the Venezuelan presidential election. (Raul Arboleda/AFP via Getty Images)
Regional leaders such as Argentine President Javier Maielli declared Maduro’s alleged victory a fraud and demanded evidence to support his claim of victory.
Both The Carter Center and the United Nations Both have declared that the election lacked credibility, with the Carter Center asserting that the election “did not meet international standards of electoral integrity and cannot be considered democratic.”
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Opposition parties first claimed to have obtained 70% of the tally sheets showing district-by-district results—all of which allegedly showed González had won with twice as many votes as Maduro, while the Electoral Council had declared a victory of 51%.
Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado and opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez shake hands during a protest against the result of the presidential election in Caracas, Venezuela, July 30, 2024. (Alfredo Lassri R/Getty Images)
Maduro’s response Ordering the Supreme Court of Venezuela, The Judiciary Court, which he and his party also control, was asked to audit the results. Ultimately – and perhaps not surprisingly – the court ruled in Maduro’s favour.
The court’s decision to certify the results further inflamed the opposition. Gabriel Boric, Chile’s leftist president and one of Maduro’s main critics of the election scandal, strongly criticized the high court’s certification.
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“Today, Venezuela’s TSJ has finally consolidated the fraud,” he said on his account, citing the high court’s initials. “The Maduro regime obviously enthusiastically welcomes its decision… there is no doubt that we are facing a dictatorship that rigged elections.”
The Vatican did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment by the time of publication.
Fox News Digital’s Stephanie Price and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
