“I pledge my unwavering loyalty to you, extending beyond the chapters of our beautiful and courageous shared journey,” he declared on Monday.

Currently serving his third term, Maduro faces allegations of electoral fraud, stifling dissent, and violating human rights.

This year, Venezuelan opposition figure María Corina Machado received the Nobel Peace Prize for her relentless advocacy for democratic freedoms for the Venezuelan populace.

Now in his third term as leader, Maduro has been accused of fraud, suppressing opposition and human rights abuses.

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this year, for “her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela”.

Alleged narco-terrorism and a possible invasion

Accusations that the Venezuelan government has supported and facilitated drug trafficking efforts into the US have been central to the Trump administration’s rhetoric and have fuelled the months-long campaign of US strikes on boats off the coast of Venezuela.

Trump has sent a large deployment of US military to the region, including an aircraft carrier group, with a stated mission of tackling transnational crime and drug trafficking.

“If the US launches a military intervention in Venezuela, it would mark the first interstate war by the United States in South America,” the group wrote in November, noting how past US military operations in Latin America had “delivered not security but a torrent of bloodshed, dispossession, and destabilisation”.

Maduro remains resolute

“The gunboat diplomacy: I have so many cannons, so many ships, and I put them in front of you and you surrender or do what I feel like making you do. No, that’s over.”