page_title: Second inauguration of Nicolás Maduro
section_title: Response
hierarchical_section_title: Second inauguration of Nicolás Maduro / Response
caption_attribution_description: English: REINSTALACIÓN DE LA SESIÓN NO. 567 DEL PLENO DE LA ASAMBLEA NACIONAL. QUITO, 16 DE ENERO DE 2019 Quito, 16 de enero de 2019. Proyecto de resolución en el cual la Asamblea Nacional del Ecuador, se pronuncie frente a la posesión ilegal y antidemocrática del Presidente de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro Moros. A sí vote indicates denouncing Maduro.
context_page_description: The second inauguration of Nicolás Maduro as President of Venezuela took place on Thursday, 10 January 2019. The inauguration involved the swearing-in of Nicolás Maduro for his second term, and, especially within the context of Maduro's election, has been controversial and contested by various figures and organizations.
context_section_description: Many nations and supranational bodies did not recognize Maduro as a legitimate President, including the Lima Group and the Organization of American States. John R. Bolton, U.S. National Security Advisor, said, "The US will not recognize the Maduro dictatorship's illegitimate inauguration." In response, Maduro said during his inauguration that the United States and Lima Group's lack of recognition was turning his ceremony into "a world war". On 11 January, Russia accused the US of attacking Venezuela's freedom.
  In response to Maduro's inauguration, Argentine President Mauricio Macri stated "Venezuela is living under a dictatorship". South African President Cyril Ramaphosa congratulated Maduro following his inauguration.
  On 11 January, Venezuelan ministers claimed there were violent attacks on the Venezuela Embassy in Lima, Peru. Peru and Paraguay closed their embassies in Venezuela and recalled diplomats, and Paraguay also removed Venezuelan diplomats from its own country. Peru also barred Maduro and 100 other Venezuelan politicians from entering the country, and Argentina similarly banned the entry of Venezuelan government personnel. As a collective, the Lima Group announced that if Maduro took office they would ban travel to their nations and stop military cooperation, supposedly tactics designed to turn the Venezuelan military against their leader. Mexico abstained from the group announcement, with new president Andrés Manuel López Obrador citing the non-intervention policies of his government. In response to the group's announcement, Maduro threatened them with "diplomatic measures" if they didn't revoke the resolution. David Smilde from the Washington Office on Latin America had said despite preemptive threats from the Lima Group, he didn't expect any of the member countries to actually remove embassies. Instead, he thought that they would simply tell Maduro that he is illegitimate and that they would be ignored. However, the Lima Group did follow through with their threats, and Smilde suggested that this action would make Maduro and his allies "fret". In a foreign ministry statement, Brazil called on "all of the world's countries" to "stop supporting [Maduro] and come together to liberate Venezuela".
  On 7 January 2019, several days before the inauguration, Supreme Court Justice and member of the Electoral Commission Christian Zerpa, who had previously been aligned with Maduro, defected to the United States, calling Maduro "incompetent" and the elections "unfair". In response, the government said that Zerpa had fled the country in order to escape charges of sexual harassment. US intelligence also suggested that there was more fracturing within Maduro's close ranks, and that his general Vladimir Padrino López had threatened to resign if Maduro took office.
  Though many called for power in Venezuela to be deferred to the National Assembly, Phil Gunson of the Caracas Crisis Group said that the opposition, which has the Assembly's majority, was not united well enough to bring the failing state into prosperity.
  Economically, Maduro's continued rule has led experts to estimate that Venezuela would experience at least 23 million percent inflation by the end of 2019.
caption: Ecuador's National Assembly 16 January vote on denouncing Maduro
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