He is an autocrat accused at home and abroad of stealing the nation's last election. However, on Friday, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who has overseen his country's dramatic decline, including runaway inflation, blackouts, hunger, mass migration and the collapse of the country's democracy, is set to be sworn in for a third term.
If he serves the full six years, he will extend his party's rule into a third decade.
Mr. Maduro will return to Miraflores, the presidential palace in Caracas, even after millions of Venezuelans. used the ballot box expressing a desire for change. And he will do so during his harshest crackdown yet, with police and military covering the streets of the capital; imprisoned journalists, activists and community leaders; and the vast expansion of its control apparatus.
The man who the US and others say won the election, Edmundo Gonzalezremains in exile, forced to flee to Spain or face imprisonment, the country's most important opposition leader, Maria Corina Machadoentered Hiding inside Venezuela.
On Thursday, he appeared in the capital Caracas for the first time since August, joining street protests against Mr Maduro. He stood on top of a truck and thousands of his supporters shouted at the risk of arrest: “Freedom! freedom! freedom!”
There have been several other recent protests against the government, and the ever-present threat that security forces will arrest civilians is likely to make it difficult for Ms. Machado to continue rallying her supporters to the streets.
Mr Gonzalez said he would return to Venezuela for his inauguration on Friday – but the government has put a $100,000 reward on his head and it is unclear how he plans to avoid arrest if he does.
For his part, Mr. Maduro faces the possibility that President-elect Donald J. Trump filled his foreign policy team with Maduro enemieswill take a tough stance against him, possibly imposing more economic sanctions.
In response, the Venezuelan leader has spent the past six months stockpiling foreign detainees, which analysts and former US diplomats say he hopes to use as a bargaining chip in negotiations with the US and other nations.
Since July, Venezuelan security forces have received about 50 visitors and dual passport holders from more than a dozen countries, according to the Foro Penal watchdog group.
“They are replaceable pawns,” said Foro Penal founder Gonzalo Himiob.
Among other policy changes, Mr Maduro wants the lifting of US sanctions that have hit Venezuela's economy and international recognition.
Venezuelan officials say they have detained at least nine people with American citizenship or residency status, some of whom they have accused of plotting to kill Mr. Maduro.
The United States does not have a diplomatic presence in Venezuela, and a State Department representative said the US government is not even sure where its own citizens are being held.
Relatives of the three detained US citizens said they had not heard from their relatives since their disappearance months ago and had received only limited information from their governments.
David Estrella, 64, a father of five, crossed overland from Colombia to Venezuela on September 9, according to his ex-wife Elvia Macias, 44.
Ms. Macias, who was close to her ex-husband, described him as an “adventurer” full of optimism that the situation in Venezuela was “not so bad” and went to visit friends.
He said he worked in quality control for pharmaceutical companies in New Jersey, was about to retire, and had visited Venezuela once before.
Ms. Macias cried as she said she celebrated Christmas without him.
“This situation has affected our lives a lot,” he said.
Mr Maduro's socialist movement has ruled the country since 1999, when his predecessor Hugo Chavez took office. In July, Mr. Maduro faced his toughest electoral challenge yet, facing Mr. González, a former diplomat who served as Ms. Machado's surrogate when he ran the government. forbade running away.
Even amid an intensified campaign of repression, many Venezuelans have come out in force to support Mr. Gonzalez. And in the days after the election, the opposition collected thousands of ballot papers, publishes them online and they said they showed Mr. Gonzalez won by a wide margin.
Mr Maduro nevertheless declared victory, a claim questioned by independent observers, including the Carter Center, the United Nations and a member of the UN. the Electoral Council of the country.
The United States recognized Mr. Gonzalez as the winner, and even Maduro allies such as Venezuela's leftist neighbors, Colombian Presidents Gustavo Petro and Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, distanced themselves.
None of them will attend the inauguration.
Mr. Maduro has previously detained foreigners for political purposes. But his government has never arrested so many people at once, according to Foro Penal, a watchdog group.
Some analysts said Mr. Maduro decided to detain foreigners because he saw that it got him what he wanted.
In 2022 and then again in 2023The United States struck deals with the Venezuelan government in which Washington released high-profile Venezuelan allies in exchange for US citizens held by Mr. Maduro.
It was part of a shift in America's relationship with governments and others overseas that captured Americans.
In the past, U.S. policy was not to negotiate with captors, fearing that a deal-breaker would prompt hostage-taking.
But it left imprisoned Americans with little hope of rescue, and critics said it even led to the deaths of people like journalist James Foley. He was killed by ISIS in Syria in 2014.
After that, the United States showed a greater willingness to negotiate. But some critics argue that it provokes the practice that Mr. Maduro has engaged in.
Tom Shannon, who served in senior State Department positions in the Obama and Trump administrations, said he believed Mr. Maduro was encouraged by the recent bailout deals. Russia and Iran.
Still, he didn't think it was wrong to cut deals.
“I think one of our jobs is to take care of American citizens overseas,” Mr. Shannon said. “It's very difficult to write people and say, 'that's bad luck, I'm so sorry'.”
Instead, he said, the U.S. government should “give the abductees a level of pain that makes it clear that this will not happen again.”
Other U.S. citizens detained in Venezuela include Navy SEAL Wilbert Castañeda, 37, who was visiting Venezuela to visit his girlfriend, according to his mother, Petra Castañeda, 60.
Mr. Castañeda, a father of four, was arrested by authorities in late August. By September, his face was smeared on state television, with Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello accusing him and others of complicity in the assassination of the president.
Ms. Castañeda, who lives in California, said her son was innocent.
“The whole family is very worried, we are desperate,” he said. “We hope that the United States can reach an agreement with Mr. Maduro.”
Stephen William Logan, 83, a retired teacher in West Virginia, said his son Aaron Barrett Logan, 34, didn't even realize Logan had gone to Venezuela. Then, in September, his family received a call from State Department officials informing them of his detention.
Mr Logan said his son worked for a major bank in the US as a “penetration tester” – testing the bank's security by trying to break into its systems.
Mr. Cabello accused the younger Mr. Logan of participating in the same conspiracy.
“I don't even know how to imagine it,” the elderly Mr. Logan said of the conditions his son lived in, wondering if it was like a “concentration camp.”
Representatives of Mr. Trump's transition team declined to comment. None of the US detainees have been declared unlawfully detained by the State Department, a designation that could get them more help from within the US government.
Although similar gatherings have been met with violence by security forces, many people in Caracas joined Thursday's anti-Maduro protest. death of participants.
Among those on the streets was 21-year-old Laura Matos, who said “everyone” told her not to “go out”.
But “I couldn't sleep last night,” he said. “I said that I want something to happen, I want the elected president Edmundo Gonzalez to be sworn in, I want Venezuela to experience change.”
“We don't deserve to be like this,” he continued, as protesters blew plastic horns around him. “We deserve a better future. Young people like me deserve to study, work and stay in our country.''
Alain Delaquerière contributed to the research.