MEXICO CITY, Aug. 9 Social network X, formerly Twitter, has violated Venezuelan law multiple times and will be suspended for 10 days, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said during a meeting at the presidential palace that was broadcast on his YouTube channel.
«The social network that was called Twitter, X, belongs to Elon Musk. And it violated all of its own rules of Twitter itself. It violated by inciting hatred, fascism, civil war, death, confrontation of Venezuelans, it violated all of the laws of Venezuela. And in Venezuela there is a law, and we are going to enforce it. That is why I signed the proposal of Conatel, the National Telecommunications Commission, which decided to disconnect the social network X, formerly known as Twitter, from operating in Venezuela for 10 days so that they can present their guarantees. X left Venezuela for 10 days,» Maduro said.
The presidential elections in Venezuela were held on July 28, and the National Electoral Council declared Nicolas Maduro the winner. The next day, protests broke out across the country against the results of these elections; violent clashes between security forces and protesters took place in Caracas and other cities, as a result of which over 2,000 people were detained.
Washington, without waiting for the results of the vote count and subsequent audit, called on the international community to recognize opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez as the winner of the presidential election in Venezuela, «given the clear evidence.» US and EU lawmakers overseeing international relations on Friday threatened Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro with «responsibility» if he does not voluntarily give up his powers as head of state after the elections, calling the results of the vote fabricated.In Moscow, after the announcement of the official election results, they said that the Venezuelan opposition must admit defeat. In addition, the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov warned third countries against supporting attempts to shake up the situation inside Venezuela.
After the 2018 elections, which Maduro also won, and his inauguration, mass protests have already taken place in Venezuela. Then the head of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, Juan Guaido, illegally proclaimed himself interim head of state. A number of Western countries, led by the United States, have declared recognition of Guaido. In turn, Maduro called the head of parliament a US puppet. Russia, China, Türkiye and a number of other countries supported Maduro as a legitimate president. At the end of December 2022, the Venezuelan opposition voted to eliminate Guaido’s “interim government.” Opposition leaders stated that the resignation of the “provisional government” was overdue, since the structure had weakened and was not fulfilling its tasks. A few days later, Guaido left the post of speaker of the opposition parliament.