Sawt Falasteen - Venezuela's Maduro sworn in as opponents decry 'coup,' US hikes bounty

A defiant Maduro, 62, adorned with an oversized yellow-blue-and-red sash shrugged off the outcry over his unproven claim to have won another six-year term, saying that his investiture was a "great victory for Venezuelan democracy."

Washington and London promptly issued a bevy of sanctions on Maduro's regime to punish Venezuela's leader since 2013 for staging what the opposition called a "coup."

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken slammed the inauguration as "illegitimate" in remarks echoed by the European Union.

In a sign of Maduro's isolation, only two prominent regional leaders -- Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel and elderly Nicaraguan ex-guerrilla Daniel Ortega -- attended his inauguration, while Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his congratulations.

Traditional left-wing allies, including Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva pointedly stayed away from the ceremony, which sparked protests across Venezuela a day earlier.

The opposition says its tally of results from the July vote showed a clear victory for its candidate, 75-year-old Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who went into exile in Spain in September.

- 'Has Edmundo arrived?' -

The United States, which has recognized Gonzalez Urrutia as president-elect, increased to $25 million a reward for information leading to the arrest of Maduro or Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, and added a new $15 million reward for Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez.

All three rewards relate to US narco-trafficking charges dating to 2020, two years after Maduro's first re-election in a vote also tainted by fraud allegations.

His third term could see him remain in office until 2033, four years more than his mentor, the late socialist firebrand Hugo Chavez.

Maduro was in a jovial mood after taking the oath of office before parliament and receiving the presidential sash.

He even joked about Gonzalez Urrutia's vow to return home on Friday and be sworn in in his stead.

"Has Edmundo arrived?" Maduro asked in mock surprise after a noise during the inauguration.

- Opposition defiance -

The former bus driver and trade unionist has clung to power for over a decade through a mix of populism and repression, even as the US imposed punishing sanctions on the key oil sector and the economy imploded.

On Thursday, opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who was barred from running in the election and instead campaigned for Gonzalez Urrutia, emerged from hiding to address thousands of protesters on the streets of Caracas.

"We are not afraid," she declared, referring to the government's crackdown on protests after Maduro's election victory claim in July and a new wave of arrests of opponents and critics this week.

She was briefly detained after her address in circumstances that remain unclear.

At least 17 other protesters were also detained, according to the rights NGO Foro Penal.

Maduro had ordered the deployment of thousands of police and soldiers in recent days.

Security forces kept a watchful eye over the capital Caracas for the swearing-in, closing off streets and setting up roadblocks.

Gonzalez Urrutia's features were splashed across "Wanted" posters pasted on street signs, offering a $100,000 bounty for his capture.

More than 2,400 people were arrested, 28 killed and about 200 injured in the protests that erupted after Maduro claimed election victory in July, without providing a vote breakdown.

He has since maintained a fragile peace with the help of the security forces and paramilitary "colectivos" -- armed civilian volunteers accused of quelling protest through a reign of neighborhood terror.

- 'International conspiracy' -

Maduro warned repeatedly in the run-up to his inauguration of a US plot to oust him.

Citing "an international conspiracy to disturb Venezuelans' peace," Freddy Bernal, governor of the frontier state of Tachira, announced Friday that the border with Colombia was closed.

Colombia is home to most of the seven million Venezuelans who fled their country's economic collapse under Maduro's rule.

The opposition is now waiting to see what strategy US President-elect Donald Trump, who took a hardline stance on Maduro's regime during his first term, will adopt on his return to the White House later this month.

The sanctions he imposed on Venezuela's key oil sector were partly lifted, then reimposed, by his successor Joe Biden.

N.Shalabi--SF-PST