Add Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to the rising listing of international leaders with whom tech billionaire Elon Musk has picked a combat.
Following the outcomes of Venezuela’s presidential election, by which Maduro and his opponents every claimed victory, the proprietor of X took to the social media platform to accuse the self-proclaimed socialist chief of “main election fraud.”
“Disgrace on Dictator Maduro,” Musk mentioned Monday.
Maduro in flip trashed Musk as “the archenemy of Venezuela’s peace.”
Officers delayed the discharge of detailed vote tallies from Sunday’s election after proclaiming Maduro the winner with 51% of the vote, in contrast with 44% for retired diplomat Edmundo González. The competing claims arrange a high-stakes standoff.
After failing to oust Maduro throughout three rounds of demonstrations since 2014, the opposition put its religion within the poll field. The elections had been among the many most peaceable in current reminiscence, reflecting hopes that Venezuela may keep away from bloodshed and finish 25 years of single-party rule.
Musk additionally retweeted a comment on X by his “good friend” Argentine President Javier Milei. “The numbers introduced a landslide opposition by the victory and the world is ready for the federal government to acknowledge defeat after years of socialism, distress, decadence and dying,” Milei mentioned.
Maduro was swift to reply to Musk’s social media posts, calling the billionaire a risk to Venezuela.
“He’s the illustration of the fascist ideology, anti-natural, anti-society,” Maduro mentioned.
“Elon Musk is determined, management your self,” he warned. “Whoever will get concerned with me dries out.”
This isn’t Musk’s first confrontation with international governments. Earlier this yr, the self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist” clashed with a Brazilian supreme courtroom justice over free speech, far-right accounts and purported misinformation on X, previously Twitter. Musk purchased Twitter again in 2022, upending lots of the social platform’s insurance policies and shedding nearly all of its workforce.
As for Venezuela’s election, leaders around the globe additionally expressed issues over the outcomes, many calling for transparency within the vote depend.
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