FILE – Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk listens to a question during an event in Washington, March 9, 2020. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
Tech billionaire Elon Musk has added Venezuelan regime leader Nicolas Maduro to the list of foreign leaders with whom he has clashed.
Following the results of the presidential elections in Venezuela, in which Maduro was illegally declared the winner by the National Electoral Council, the owner of X (formerly Twitter) accused the dictator of “major electoral fraud.”
“Shame on dictator Maduro,” Musk said on his social media platform on Monday.
Maduro, for his part, was quick to respond, calling Musk “the arch-enemy of peace in Venezuela.”
Maduro was illegally proclaimed president on Monday (EFE/Ronald Peña R.)
Musk also retweeted a comment on X from his “friend,” Argentine President Javier Milei. “The numbers announce a crushing opposition to victory and the world is waiting for the government to recognize defeat after years of socialism, misery, decadence and death,” Milei said.
Maduro quickly responded to Musk’s posts, calling the billionaire a threat to Venezuela. “He is the representation of fascist, unnatural, anti-society ideology,” Maduro said.
“Elon Musk is desperate, control yourself,” warned the Venezuelan dictator. “Whoever messes with me will dry up.”
The tycoon later published a message in Spanish, while reposting a video about Maduro’s unconstitutional proclamation on Monday.
“The donkey knows more than Maduro,” he said, and in a new message he added: “Sorry for comparing the poor donkey with Maduro. It is an insult to the animal world.”
Messages posted by Elon Musk on X
This isn’t Musk’s first run-in with foreign governments. Earlier this year, the self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist” clashed with a Brazilian Supreme Court judge over free speech, far-right accounts and alleged misinformation on Twitter. Musk bought back Twitter in 2022, resulting in significant changes to the social platform’s policies and the layoffs of most of its workforce.
Venezuelan anti-Chavez leader Maria Corina Machado said on Monday that the majority opposition has managed to obtain 73.20% of the votes cast in this Sunday’s presidential elections, which she said gave victory to former ambassador Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, with an “overwhelming” difference, even though the electoral body declared the Chavista Nicolas Maduro the winner.
Venezuela entered a new political crisis on Monday following the presidential elections (REUTERS/Leonardo Fernandez Viloria)
The opposition member explained that all these records were verified, totaled and digitalized, to be published on a “robust” web portal that “several global leaders are already consulting” and that will be public in the next few hours, so that everyone can see the “proof of González Urrutia’s victory.”
On Monday, the National Electoral Council (CNE) officially proclaimed Maduro president, after announcing on Sunday night that the Chavista, in power since 2013, won the election with 51.2% of the votes, the same result he received when 80% of the ballots had been counted and there were still more than two million votes left to count.
(With information from AP)
