In recent weeks, the name of Nicholas Maduro has not left the news feeds. Who is he and what events on a global scale are unfolding around his person?
Biography
Nicolas Maduro was born on 23 November 1962 in Caracas and raised in the popular parish of El Valle. He graduated from high school at the Avalos Lyceum. During his school years, he belonged to the Socialist League and from a young age worked as a driver in the Metro of Caracas. CIA reports claim he was the driver with the most fines from the company.
Maduro was chosen as the union leader, and soon became a member of the board of directors of this company. A few years later, Nicholas became the founder of the new Metro Syndicate in Caracas (SITRAMECA).
Nicolas Maduro was a member of the Bolivarian Revolutionary Movement 200 (MBR-200), one of the organizations that formed part of the political movement led by Hugo Chavez. This happened after the prevention of an attempted coup d'état against the second government of Carlos Andrés Perez.
Some time later, Maduro founded the Bolivarian Labor Force (FBT) movement. In the 90s, he is part of the Fifth Republican Movement, whose party participated in the 1998 presidential campaign, in which Hugo Chavez was elected president of Venezuela.
Elected as a member of the 1999 Constituent Assembly, which drafted a new constitution that same year, Maduro was re-elected as a member of the Venezuelan National Assembly in 2000. In this position, he was re-elected in the 2005 legislative elections, shortly after being appointed president of parliament.
In 2006, he left office to take over as Plenipotentiary Representative of the Ministry of People's Power for Foreign Affairs, replacing Minister Ali Rodriguez Arak.
Vice presidency
After President Chávez won a fourth term in October 2012, he appointed Maduro as vice president. Nicholas worked hand in hand as the president, serving as one of his closest advisers. He was not only his political associate, but also his main confidant until the death of Chavez on March 5, 2013 at the age of 58 from cancer. Shortly before his death in December 2012, Chávez named Maduro as his preferred successor.
Soon after reports of Chavez's death emerged in March 2013, speculation arose in the press that various political decisions by Nicolas Maduro and National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello could prove problematic for Venezuela after Maduro took office. These assumptions turned out to be prophetic.
Election to the presidency
During his 2013 presidential campaign, Maduro pledged to complete the socialist transformation of Venezuela pioneered by Chavez, tighten controls in impoverished areas of the country, and raise the country's minimum wage by 30 to 40 percent.
In April 2013, Maduro won the election against another strongest presidential candidate, Enrique Capriles, beating his rival by less than two percentage points. Regarding the narrow election results, Maduro said in an interview with The Washington Post: “Yesterday and today I said this - I can win with one single vote, and this will be my victory. If I lose with one single vote, I immediately leave power. This is the decision of the people. "He later added:" These are the people of Chavez, this is the place of Chavez, Chavez continues to serve as an example for us! I ensure the legacy of my commander, Chavez, the eternal father."
The Guardian reported voter turnout was about 78.71 percent, compared with the October 2012 elections, which accounted for 80.4 percent of the country's nearly 19 million registered voters.
Attempted murder
In August 2018, Maduro survived a serious assassination attempt. It was an attempted assassination by drones equipped with explosives. The president was delivering a speech at a military parade in the Venezuelan capital when two explosions were heard. As a result, seven members of the National Guard were injured, although Maduro remained unharmed.
The Attorney General of Venezuela took over the investigation of the incident. Meanwhile, Maduro has accused extreme right-wing forces, in particular, outgoing Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, of attempted assassination. Predictably, Santos officials called the accusations "baseless."
Currently, there are heated discussions in the political environment about an attempt to eliminate Maduro. There is a version that this move was provoked by the United States, which initially considered the activities of the President of Venezuela illegitimate.
