“You couldn’t stand a round against me,” Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro told Argentina’s Javier Milei during his victory speech. Milei had called him a “dictator” and said Venezuela’s election results were fraudulent earlier in the evening.
Maduro claimed to have won a third consecutive six-year term in the early hours of Monday morning with 51.2% of the vote, despite exit polls that indicated a win for the opposition in the Venezuelan elections. The Venezuelan leader has presided over an economic and humanitarian crisis, worsened by U.S.-led economic sanctions, and has been accused of grave human rights violations.
International leaders have questioned the results and called for a careful, transparent vote count. The foreign ministries of Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic, and Uruguay issued a joint communiqué calling for a “transparent vote count” that would ensure voters’ will is respected and “allow for verification and control from auditors and delegates from every candidate.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said: “We have serious concerns that the result announced does not reflect the will or the votes of the Venezuelan people.”
“Argentina will not acknowledge a new fraud,” Milei posted on X, calling Maduro a “dictator” and saying he hoped the Armed Forces would “defend democracy and popular will this time around.”
“Venezuelans chose to end Nicolás Maduro’s communist dictatorship,” Milei said. “Data shows a crushing victory for the opposition and the world is expecting him to acknowledge defeat after years of socialism, misery, deterioration, and death.”
Maduro hit back at Milei directly while addressing the crowd at his party headquarters, calling Milei a “cowardly bug,” a “traitor to the homeland” and “fascist.”
“These people have said no to wild capitalism and fascism. From Caracas, Venezuela has said no to the Nazi fascist Milei. We are a country of warriors,” Maduro said, joining his supporters as they chanted Argentine protest songs against Milei.
“He must be bursting with that monster face of his, because he’s an ugly guy, too, and stupid,” Maduro said. “He takes these stupid pictures,” he said, imitating the way Milei usually poses. “How can you take a Nazi, fascist guy like that seriously?”
Milei had spoken with opposition leader María Corina Machado on Friday to express his support for her. Machado was not able to participate in the presidential elections, despite winning the opposition primaries, because she was banned from holding office, a move upheld by Venezuela’s highest court. Edmundo González Urrutia ran in her place and got 44.2% of the vote, according to official results.
On Sunday, thousands of people gathered outside the Venezuelan embassy in Buenos Aires to protest Maduro’s government and support opposition candidates, including Foreign Minister Diana Mondino, Security Minister Patricia Bullrich and lawmakers from ruling coalition La Libertad Avanza and ally party PRO.
Mondino called on Maduro to accept defeat before the results were announced on Sunday night, claiming that he had lost in every state by over 35 points. “There is no fraud or violence that can hide reality,” she wrote on X.
Argentina and Venezuela had a strong relationship during the left-leaning governments of Néstor and Cristina Kirchner and Hugo Chávez. Those ties remained strong after Chávez’s death in 2013, when Maduro became president, but weakened during the right-wing presidency of Mauricio Macri.
Peronist former President Alberto Fernández criticized international economic sanctions against Venezuela, but also questioned human rights violations there and called for the Caribbean country’s democratic institutions to be strengthened.
In March, Maduro decided to ban Argentine planes from passing through Venezuelan airspace. It came after Milei backed the United States judiciary’s decision to confiscate a Venezuelan plane that had been retained in Argentina since 2022 under accusations that it was used for Iranian spy operations in Latin America.
Milei has quickly notched up a tempestuous track record with international neighbors he disagrees with. He has called Colombian President Gustavo Petro a “murderous communist,” Brazil’s Lula an “angry communist”, and Spain’s first lady “corrupt.” All three countries have recently recalled their ambassadors to Argentina, albeit only for a week, in Brazil’s case.
Venezuelan presidents have got creative with their insults against world leaders, too. In 2006, Chávez gave a national televised address telling George W. Bush, U.S. president at the time, “You are a donkey, Mr. Bush!”
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