From Caracas
Venezuela swore in President Nicolás Maduro for a third term on Friday.
Since Maduro took power in 2013, Venezuela’s economy has been spiraling and political repression skyrocketing. Maduro was declared the winner of last July’s election, but the U.S. says vote tallies showed rival candidate Edmundo González as the (landslide) winner. Tensions have only risen.
On Maduro’s inauguration day, the Biden administration raised a bounty on the authoritarian leader to $25M, seeking info leading to his arrest on drug trafficking charges. The U.K., E.U., and Canada piled on with financial sanctions against Venezuelan officials.
The White House has also extended protections for Venezuelan immigrants (along with migrants from Ukraine, Sudan, and El Salvador), allowing over a million people an extra 18 months in the Temporary Protected Status Program—which President-elect Trump has promised to scale back.
ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE
Just as many Americans view the outcomes of foreign elections with a certain level of detachment, Christians view earthly political outcomes as secondary to the campaign of our eternal home, where we hold our truest citizenship.
“From now on, then, we do not know anyone from a worldly perspective.… In Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us.”
2 Corinthians 5:16, 19-20 (CSB) (read full passage)