The News
The US announced a $25m reward for the arrest or conviction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Friday as he was set to be inaugurated for a third five-year term in office following last year’s widely-disputed election.
The State Department in 2020 had announced a reward of $15 million for Maduro’s arrest or conviction, following his indictment on narco-terrorism and other charges in the US.
The US Treasury on Friday also issued sanctions against eight Venezuelan economic and security officials, including the state oil company chief, saying they enabled “Maduro’s repression and subversion of democracy in Venezuela.”
Maduro, meanwhile, has ramped up his crackdown on the opposition, which international observers believe comfortably beat him in last year’s election. Hundreds have been arrested, and many forced into hiding or exile. On Thursday, opposition leader María Corina Machado was briefly detained after making a surprise appearance at a rally in Caracas. Edmundo González, the opposition candidate, has maintained he will soon arrive in Venezuela to assume the presidency.
However, analysts believe Gonzalez’s odds of securing power remain low given the army’s support for Maduro and an ambivalent position from the incoming US administration. “Long odds, but no dictatorship lasts forever,” the editor-in-chief of America’s Quarterly wrote on X.
