New Venezuela President Sworn in, but Officials Will Audit Vote
By WILLIAM NEUMAN, New York Times
CARACAS, Venezuela — In the carnival-mirror world of Venezuelan politics, Nicolás Maduro was sworn in as president on Friday, just hours after election officials agreed to carry out a partial recount of the vote result, which opponents hoped could lead to its being overturned.
Mr. Maduro was elected Sunday by a narrow margin less than six weeks after the death of his mentor, Hugo Chávez, the charismatic socialist. He beat Henrique Capriles Radonski, who refused to recognize the results and called for a recount, claiming that he was the true winner.
Tensions ran high afterward, with protests, scattered violence and both sides blaming the other for several deaths.
The inauguration was delayed for hours because Mr. Maduro had been in Lima, Peru, until well past midnight at a special meeting of the Union of South American Nations, which had been called to discuss the situation in Venezuela.
Shortly before the meeting began in Lima, the National Electoral Council in Caracas said it would grant Mr. Capriles’s request for a review of the election results. Mr. Capriles said he believed that the review would turn up evidence of irregularities that would “show the country the truth” about the election.
After a meeting of several South American presidents, the organization released a statement recognizing Mr. Maduro as Venezuela’s new president.
The statement also took “positive note” of the decision to carry out the partial recount and called for dialogue and toleration.
The inauguration was attended by many Latin American heads of state, including the leaders of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia and Peru. Two allies of Mr. Chávez’s sat side by side: Presidents Raúl Castro of Cuba and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran.
The ceremony, in the National Assembly chamber, was marred by a bizarre episode.
Five minutes after Mr. Maduro started speaking, a man in a red jacket ran onto the rostrum, pushed him aside and shouted something into the microphone. The television camera cut away and when it returned a minute later the man was gone, apparently hustled away by guards.
“The security has failed absolutely,” Mr. Maduro said. “They could have shot me here.”
But he soon regained his equilibrium. “Incident overcome,” he said. “Afterward we will speak with this boy. Who knows what desperation he carries.”
He added, “Now they’re going to say that it was part of a setup, a reality show that we created to get the attention of those who weren’t watching.”
The intrusion was noteworthy not simply because of the breach of security at an event attended by numerous heads of state, but also because Mr. Maduro has repeatedly said in recent weeks that his enemies were conspiring to assassinate him or to overthrow his government. But he did not immediately blame the opposition for the episode.
Mr. Maduro, 50, faces many challenges. He must try to keep Mr. Chávez’s movement unified while parrying an energized opposition. He faces serious economic problems like high inflation and shortages of basic goods, rampant violent crime and an electrical grid prone to blackouts.
Most of all he must prove to Venezuelans that he can carry on in place of the magnetic Mr. Chávez, who held office for 14 years and dominated every aspect of political life. He will serve the remainder of Mr. Chávez’s six-year term, which began in January.
In his speech, Mr. Maduro compared Mr. Capriles and his followers to Nazis and the devil. But he also said he was ready for dialogue. “I extend you my hand,” he said, addressing those who voted against him. “I want to work with you.”
The event invited comparisons to a rally in January held on the day that Mr. Chávez was to be sworn in. He could not attend because he was in Cuba following cancer surgery. But tens of thousands of people showed up to take the oath of office in place of their absent president.
On Friday, while there were thousands of people on the streets in red T-shirts, the crowd was a far cry from the one in January. People bunched up at intersections, where there were stages with bands playing, but in between the stages there were few people.
An M.C. on one stage shouted to the crowd gathered nearby: “Where are the Chavistas?” Several dozen people raised their hands and shouted, but the man’s words could also have been taken as a rhetorical question, as if to say, “Where did everyone go?”
Paula Ramón and María Eugenia Díaz contributed reporting from Caracas, and Andrea Zarate from Lima, Peru.
For more on this story go to:
