Nicolás Maduro is ready to fight the richest man in the world. No, this is not yet another fake news story spread across the conspiracy world on the Internet. On July 29, on national television, the Venezuelan president addressed Elon Musk as follows: “You want to fight? Let’s do it […]where you want.”
The pro-Trump billionaire’s response was not long in coming. The Tesla founder proposed that, in the event of his victory, Maduro resign and, mockingly, was even prepared to offer him a trip to the planet Mars. Hugo Chavez’s successor could have left it there, but during a press conference on July 31, he upped the ante by miming a boxing match and declaring: “We’re going to fight [sur un ring]. But come here to the Poliedro [NDLR : gymnase de Caracas]you and me. If I beat you Elon Musk, I accept your trip to Mars, but you come with me!”
The enmity between the two men – one claims to be a Bolivarian and the other claims to be a champion of libertarianism – is public knowledge. But their antagonistic relationship has taken on a new dimension since July 28, on the occasion of the Venezuelan presidential election. Nicolás Maduro, a candidate for his own succession, was declared the winner by the National Electoral Council (CNE) with 51% of the vote against 44% for his competitor Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia. However, the CNE did not reveal the breakdown of the votes. As a result, the opposition candidate also claims victory in the election.
Musk, a threat to Maduro
The protest against Maduro’s victory is such that the Peruvian Minister of Foreign Affairs declared, on TV Peru News : “Mr. Gonzalez is the elected and legitimate president of Venezuela.” Since Monday, at least 12 people have been killed in protests, 77 officials have been injured, and more than 1,000 people have been arrested.
To explain its inability to reveal the details of the results, the CNE claims to have been the victim of a cyberattack. Nicolás Maduro announced the creation of “a special commission to evaluate, with Russian and Chinese advice, the biosecurity system of the country that is under attack, and in particular the attack that has seriously damaged the CNE’s communications system… The attacks, I am sure, are directed by the power of Elon Musk.”
He continued his diatribe from the balcony of his residence on the evening of July 30. “Venezuela […] “It is facing national and international aggression from world powers, and now it turns out that Elon Musk is obsessed with taking Venezuela and ruling Venezuela from the outside,” he said, referring to an “alliance of the global far right, the fascist far right, drug trafficking, Elon Musk and the imperialist government of the United States.”
The meeting of two worlds
The attacks refer to the ideological proximity that Elon Musk maintains with neoliberal figures such as Donald Trump, candidate in the American presidential election, and the Argentine president Javier Milei. On his social network X (ex-Twitter), Elon Musk did not fail to take up the latter’s publications. Following the results of the Venezuelan presidential election, the Argentine president had posted, according to the formula that he had accompanied throughout his campaign: “Dictator Maduro, get out!”
Since then, the 53-year-old billionaire has continued to make provocative statements, calling the president a “donkey” or repeating thewanted notice of Nicolás Maduroreleased by the US government in 2020 due to his alleged involvement in drug trafficking.
In the midst of a political crisis, Venezuela, long one of the richest nations in Latin America, is also facing the decline of its economy. Its oil production has collapsed and its GDP has been reduced by 80% in ten years. As a result, more than seven million Venezuelans have fled the country. In power since 2013, Maduro had ensured “free and transparent” elections, according to Forbes. But the first interferences began when the government deemed the candidacy of Maria Corina Machado to be non-compliant, and she was replaced at short notice by Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia.