Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was sworn in for a second term on Thursday amid a longstanding economic crisis and pressure from some Latin American neighbors that won’t recognize his presidency after a disputed election.
But the regional Organization of American States has said it won’t recognize his new term. The May election that returned Maduro to power was boycotted by opposition groups and largely discredited by opponents in his country, with hundreds of complaints of election violations and a low turnout.
The OAS said Thursday its member nations voted 19-6, with eight abstentions, to not recognize the legitimacy of Maduro’s government.
One of those nations, Paraguay, announced Thursday it was breaking diplomatic relations with Venezuela and closing its embassy there.
Maduro has continued the huge social welfare programs and price control policies of Chavez, who steered the country toward socialism before dying in 2013. Through nearly a decade of mismanagement, Venezuela squandered its profound oil wealth, leaving its economy in tatters and Latin America reeling from an unprecedented mass exodus of migrants in search of food and medicine.
