‘I didn’t graduate from Harvard’

Maduro then praised his training in Venezuela. “I studied in schools in Caracas, I trained in union assemblies, with a thousand, two thousand workers debating our problems, and then I forged myself with the great democratizer of Venezuelan life, our master and my father, Hugo Rafael Chavez Frías.”

Speech also criticized Donald Trump’s recent actions. “Enough with threats, enough with militarism, enough with fascism, respect for the rights of the people of our America and the people of the world”, he shouted. Maduro also praised the strength of the Venezuelan people, who, in the last three months, in his words, “reinvented themselves wonderfully to face all circumstances.”

Fame as a dictator

In power since 2013, the president uses disputed victories in the elections to legitimize his mandate. Although he officially won the elections he contested, Maduro still has his legitimacy questioned, especially by international organizations, which point out fraud in the elections that elected him.

Regime is the target of repeated attacks by the United States. Since Trump took over the White House again, the Venezuelan president has seen American pressure against the government increase. Now, in addition to the usual criticism of the Bolivarian regime, the South American country has become physically surrounded by US military actions, arriving via the Caribbean Sea.

Accusations of links to trafficking are used by Trump to justify measures. Maduro was already indicted in 2020 in the US, accused of maintaining close ties with drug trafficking and helping to “flood the US with cocaine”. Trump now accuses him of being a “narco-terrorist” and increases pressure against the regime. There is, however, no evidence that the Venezuelan dictator is involved in trafficking.