CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was sworn in Friday to serve a third six-year term, extending his increasingly repressive rule until 2031 despite protests and credible evidence that his opponent won the election. The U.S.-based Carter Center, which observed the election on the government’s invitation, declared the opposition-published tallies legitimate. The brouhaha ahead of Maduro’s inauguration added to the litany of allegations of electoral fraud and brutal repression to silence dissent. Colombian President Gustavo Petro, a close Maduro ally, said he would skip the event citing the detentions earlier in the week of another longtime Venezuelan opposition member and a human rights defender. Maduro’s last inauguration, in 2019, was attended by Cuba’s President Miguel Diaz-Canel and then-Bolivian President Evo Morales.

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