Economics
Maduro Wins Venezuelan Election, Risking Harsh Oil Sanctions
- Regime keeps polls open hours late to boost paltry numbers
- Polling places once bustling are deserted amid boycott
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President Nicolas Maduro won another six-year term as millions of Venezuelans boycotted the widely derided election, a victory that hands him sole ownership of the nation’s crushing economic crisis.
Ignoring calls from the U.S. and regional leaders to suspend the elections, the socialist regime proceeded with the presidential contest despite the threat of further isolation and sanctions on the crisis-stricken nation’s all-important oil industry.
“How many times have they underestimated me?” Maduro, 55, called out to crowd of supporters outside the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas. “You have believed in me, and I’m going to respond to this infinite confidence, this lovely confidence.”