Brasil de Fato: Maduro has popular support.

From Brasil de Fato - Venezuela's re-elected president, Nicolás Maduro, will be sworn in this Thursday (10) for a new six-year term. In office since 2013, the leader won the elections in May 2018 with 67% of the votes, 46 percentage points more than the second-placed Henri Falcón.

Although the election was monitored by dozens of international observers, representatives of the Lima Group decided last Friday (4) not to recognize the legitimacy of Maduro's new term.

Created in 2017 at the initiative of the Peruvian government under the justification of "denouncing the breakdown of democratic order in Venezuela," the Lima Group is made up of Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Saint Lucia. Of the 14 countries, only Mexico opposed the text.

The bloc's decision was criticized by Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza, who accused the group's countries of trying to incite a coup d'état in the country with the support of the United States.

Brasil de Fato went to the streets of Venezuela and spoke with citizens who recognize the legitimacy of the new government and question the intentions of the Lima Group in intervening in local politics. Check it out:

Gladys Madrid, a civil servant in the Caracas city government:

"This is a legal mandate. He [Maduro] is here because the people elected him. Venezuela is a prosperous country with many riches, which is why all countries are against him."

He's there, elected by the people. There's no war here, nobody is starving, nobody is in need. All of this is a media campaign to destroy President Maduro, to kill him, to end Venezuela. It's all false. Anyone who comes to Venezuela can see for themselves what's happening here.

I believe that each country should mind its own business. Each president should deal with the problems of their own country. Venezuela is Venezuela, and we have to solve our problems internally. Nobody has to interfere in Venezuela's problems.

Willian Alfredo, leader of a social movement:

"On May 20th, we voted for our comrade Nicolás Maduro Moros. It is clear that [the new mandate] is legitimate. We are aware that he is in Miraflores [seat of the Venezuelan government] through the votes, and on January 10th he continues his mandate. He will continue his mandate."

I think the American embassy here in Venezuela is plotting something. It's a hunch I have as a Venezuelan. It's a little intuition I have as a Venezuelan.

Mirian Torrealba, educator:

"We have demonstrated, through the number of elections we have had, what we want, how we want it, and in what way we want democracy to be. We are an extremely democratic country."

I'm sorry that countries that don't even know the history of Venezuela are meddling in Venezuela's affairs. Because this concerns Venezuela. And it seems disrespectful to me that this organization, formed by presidents but not by the people, is discrediting a country. This is a violation of international constitutional law.

How is it possible that Brazil talks about us, knowing that Lula da Silva and comrade Dilma Rousseff are completely innocent? There is no legal framework [...] There is no moral authority, because first they need to correct their internal errors."