Il Nuovo Postiglione - Nicolas Maduro: Venezuela's iron-fisted 'worker president'

But the former bus driver has stubbornly clung to the wheel.

With neither the charisma nor the flush oil revenues of his late revolutionary mentor Hugo Chavez, Maduro is accused of increasingly relying on the security forces to retain power.

More than 2,400 people were arrested, 28 killed and about 200 injured in a crackdown on the protests that followed his disputed victory claim in July elections.

The violence echoed previous deadly crackdowns on the opposition in 2014, 2017 and 2019.

His third term could see him remain in power until 2031, a total of 18 years and four more than Chavez.

But he appears more isolated than ever on the international stage.

Only a handful of countries -- including perennial allies Russia and Cuba -- have recognized his claim to reelection, with the United States and several Latin American neighbors declaring opposition figure Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia the country's rightful leader.

- Poll struggles -

Tall, with a full mustache and slicked-back graying hair, Maduro's image is plastered across buildings in Venezuela where he styles himself as an earthy man of the people.

He served as a lawmaker, foreign minister and vice president before being chosen by Chavez as his successor three months before the socialist firebrand died of cancer in 2013.

The choice of Maduro, who lacks Chavez's rhetorical skills, raised eyebrows in the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).

He barely scraped through on his first election in 2013.

But he has fended off crisis after crisis with the help of the military and paramilitaries, even as the economy imploded under the weight of falling oil prices, US sanctions and hyperinflation.

Seven million Venezuelans -- a quarter of the population -- have voted with their feet and sought a better life abroad since he took office.

- Baseball and salsa -

Born in Caracas, Maduro is both a professed Marxist and Christian, and as a teenager played guitar in a rock band.

He is a baseball fan and dances salsa -- frequently showing off moves on state TV -- with his wife Cilia Flores, a former prosecutor he refers to as "First Combatant."

He has cast himself as a "worker president," and it has been claimed he deliberately misspeaks in English so as not to be seen as high-brow.

As president, Maduro has weathered many threats imagined and real -- including a failed explosive-laden drone attack in 2018 that wounded several soldiers.

He survived US sanctions imposed over his 2018 re-election, which was also tainted by fraud allegations.

About 50 countries including the US recognized congress speaker Juan Guaido as interim president but his parallel government later collapsed.

Maduro has been aided by close political and economic ties with China and Russia, which have helped the country stay barely afloat.

To deflect blame for Venezuela's woes, he has sustained Chavez's anti-American conspiracy theories, accusing the US of plotting to kill him and Western nations of ruining the once-thriving economy.

All the while, he has shuttered channels for political dissent, locking up dissidents and challengers with little regard for due process.

Venezuela is under investigation for rights violations by the International Criminal Court.

But he has also shown himself to be adept at realpolitik.

He won an easing of US sanctions and other concessions by agreeing with the opposition to hold democratic elections in 2024.

But he reneged on the conditions and some of the sanctions were snapped back last April.

To boost his omnipresent real-life persona, Maduro has sought to endear himself to a long-suffering population through a popular TV and internet cartoon character in his image.

Super-Bigote (Super-Mustache) is a caped superhero "at war with imperialism."

T.Cusumano--INP