Facing diplomatic isolation, economic collapse, and a massive U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean, Nicolás Maduro invokes Jesus Christ to sanctify his rule.
Newsroom (20/11/2025 Gaudium Press ) In a solemn ceremony at Miraflores Palace on Tuesday, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro proclaimed that “Jesus Christ is the Lord and owner of Venezuela,” casting the presidential residence as a “divine altar” and framing his leadership as spiritually ordained at a moment when his political authority appears to be crumbling.
“I, Nicolás Maduro Moros, voluntarily from the Miraflores Palace, declare today, Tuesday, November 18, 2025, that I reaffirm our Lord Jesus Christ as Lord and owner of Venezuela, and I give all honor and glory to the Holy Spirit,” the president stated before a gathering of evangelical pastors. “And I declare that the only real and true God is Almighty God.”
The highly theatrical declaration marks the latest escalation in Maduro’s periodic use of religious rhetoric, which analysts say is calculated to shore up support among Venezuela’s growing evangelical community while deflecting attention from deepening crises at home and abroad.
The timing is hardly coincidental. The announcement came just days after the Pentagon confirmed the deployment of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, some 5,000 U.S. troops, nuclear submarines, and F-35 stealth fighters to the Caribbean in what Washington describes as an intensified campaign against drug-trafficking networks operating from Venezuelan territory. The buildup, one of the largest in the region in years, has heightened fears of possible military escalation.
Domestically, Maduro presides over a nation in free fall: hyperinflation continues unabated, basic goods remain scarce, and an estimated eight million Venezuelans—more than a quarter of the population—have fled the country since 2015. The United Nations and multiple human-rights groups have documented widespread repression, including what they term “extrajudicial executions” by state security forces.
While Maduro courts evangelical leaders—whose churches have expanded rapidly amid the collapse of traditional institutions—he maintains a hostile relationship with the Roman Catholic Church, long Venezuela’s dominant religious and moral authority. Senior clergy, including Cardinal Baltazar Porras and Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, have repeatedly condemned the regime’s authoritarian drift and institutional decay. In response, the government has barred Cardinal Porras from traveling within the country to celebrate Mass and has accused Catholic leaders of conspiring with foreign powers.
Political observers in Caracas describe Tuesday’s religious proclamation as a familiar tactic from a playbook Maduro has used since succeeding Hugo Chávez in 2013: when earthly legitimacy erodes, appeal to the heavens.
“Maduro is increasingly isolated, both internationally and inside Venezuela,” said Luis Vicente León, president of the polling firm Datanálisis. “Invoking divine ownership of the country is less about personal piety than about trying to rally a loyal evangelical base and present himself as a persecuted leader chosen by God.”
For many Venezuelans, the spectacle at Miraflores offered cold comfort. “We don’t need Jesus declared owner of Venezuela,” said María González, a teacher in Catia, a working-class district of Caracas. “We need food, medicine, and the right to vote without fear.”
As U.S. warships patrol closer to Venezuelan waters and the economy spirals deeper into ruin, Maduro’s turn toward sacralizing his rule underscores a stark reality: with few remaining political or diplomatic options, the Venezuelan strongman is betting that invocations of faith can postpone an increasingly inevitable reckoning.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from Tribune Chretienne
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