'Don't care' says Venezuela's Maduro about 2024 vote recognition

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro, whose 2018 reelection was rejected by a vast swathe of the international community as fraudulent, said Saturday that he does not care about the global response to a vote scheduled for next year.

Maduro intends to seek a third six-year term in the 2024 election.

"We don't care what imperialism thinks, or what the oligarchies think, about the political, social, institutional, cultural and economic life of Venezuela," he said in an interview broadcast on state television.

"We don't care whether they say something or not, whether they recognize it or not," he added.

After the 2018 election that was boycotted by the opposition, its leader Juan Guaido was recognized by more than 50 countries as Venezuela's de facto leader.

Guaido led a symbolic "interim government" from 2019 until January this year, with support from the United States and recognition from dozens of other countries but no real power.

The opposition voted to disband the interim government in January and replaced Guaido as the head of a parallel congress made up of opposition lawmakers.

He has indicated that he, too, will seek election next year.

"We never cared that they said: 'No, the president of Venezuela is Guaido'. He was not president for an hour, not a second," said Maduro.

The head of the government's delegation at talks with the opposition in Mexico, parliamentary president Jorge Rodriguez, insisted Thursday that any agreement on free elections in 2024 will depended on the lifting of all international sanctions against Venezuela.

The opposition is seeking certain assurances, including that Guaido and other opposition leaders barred from holding public office will be allowed to run.

The opposition plans to hold a primary in October to choose a single candidate to take on Maduro.

"The presidential elections will come, the people will vote, the people will choose and, well, we will continue," Maduro said in the interview.

In November, the United States eased curbs on energy giant Chevron's operations in oil-rich Venezuela after Maduro's government resumed stalled negotiations with the opposition.

It was part of an effort to keep global prices down as the West pressed sanctions on Russia, a Venezuela ally.