Venezuelan dictator deploys bizarre distraction as country remains in turmoil after election

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has announced his plan to move Christmas to October in a bid to distract the public from ongoing political turmoil following the disputed presidential election.

"It’s more evidence that he is desperate to distract people from the fraud he committed on Election Day and the horrible repression we’ve seen in the month since," Daniel Acosta Rivas, an OSINT analyst from Venezuela, told Fox News Digital. 

"It’s not enough that he oppresses us, he also has to mock us," Rivas said. "Just like he can declare himself winner of the election without evidence, on a whim he can decree that Jesus was born on Oct. 1 and that’s when we should celebrate. He is desperate, or he is mocking us – or both."

Maduro made the bizarre announcement during his weekly television appearance on Monday, calling the decision a "tribute" to the people of Venezuela. 

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"It’s September, and it already smells like Christmas," Maduro said. "That's why this year, as a way of paying tribute to you all, and in gratitude to you all, I'm going to decree an early Christmas for October 1." 

Whatever joy Maduro hoped to bring with his tactic, he prompted the opposite. One office worker from the capital Caracas told The Associated Press that "without money and with his political crisis, who can believe that there will be an early Christmas?" 

Jorge Jraissati, a Venezuelan foreign policy expert and president of the Economic Inclusion Group, told Fox News Digital that he was "tempted to believe that Maduro’s irrational mind urged him to start Christmas in October," but that he could not "deny that stories like this portray Maduro as an idiotic character, refocusing people’s attention from the real problems of our country: the fact that our political institutions are hijacked, our economy is destroyed, and millions of people have left our country seeking a normal life."

The announcement also follows international condemnation of Maduro's decision to pursue an arrest warrant for his opponent, Edmundo Gonzalez, whom the international community continues to support as the true winner of the July 28 election despite Maduro and his party's insistence to the contrary. 

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"Maduro and his representatives cannot indefinitely suppress the legitimate aspirations of the Venezuelan people and maintain power by force," U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a press release. "The will of the people and their rights must be respected."

"We reiterate our call for the immediate and unconditional release of those who have been unjustly detained," the statement said. "The path forward should be a peaceful, transparent, and inclusive democratic transition process that puts the well-being of Venezuelans at its center."

Protests broke out across Venezuela after the country’s Maduro-controlled National Electoral Council declared him the winner of the presidential election despite reporting and polling data – which is illegal in the country – indicating a landslide victory for his united opposition.

Maduro first secured office in 2013, but many within and outside the country have alleged from the start that the United Socialist Party of Venezuela has effectively ruled as a dictatorship, leading opposition parties to boycott the 2018 election before deciding to unite behind opposition candidate Gonzalez. 

Regional leaders, such as Argentinian President Javier Milei, declared Maduro’s alleged victory a fraud and demanded evidence to support his claim to victory. 

Both the Carter Center and the United Nations have both declared that the election lacked credibility, with the Carter Center stressing the election "did not meet international standards of electoral integrity and cannot be considered democratic." 

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The opposition parties first came out with claims that they had obtained 70% of tally sheets showing the district-by-district results – all of which allegedly showed Gonzalez had won with double the votes Maduro had received, rather than the supposed 51% victory the Electoral Council had announced. 

Maduro countered by ordering the Venezuelan Supreme Court, which he and his party also controls, to conduct an audit of the results. Ultimately – and perhaps unsurprisingly – the court ruled in Maduro’s favor. 

The court’s ruling certified the results and only further inflamed opposition. Gabriel Boric, the leftist president of Chile and one of the main critics of Maduro’s election scam, blasted the high court’s certification.

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"Today, Venezuela’s TSJ has finally consolidated the fraud," he said on his account, referring to the initials of the high court. "The Maduro regime obviously welcomes with enthusiasm its ruling… there is no doubt that we are facing a dictatorship that falsifies elections."

The Vatican did not respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment by time of publication. 

Fox News Digital’s Stepheny Price and The Associated Press contributed to this report.