CARACAS, Feb 5, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who

is expected to seek another term in elections not yet scheduled but
anticipated for later this year, said on Sunday that the "people in power"
would surely win.

"We are the people in power... We will win one way or another," Maduro told
thousands of supporters in the capital for a rally marking the 32nd
anniversary of the failed coup led by Hugo Chavez, who later became president
and designated Maduro as his successor.

His remarks come a day before a meeting called by legislative assembly
speaker Jorge Rodriguez to decide the date of the next national elections.

Last year, Maduro's government and the opposition reached a mediated deal in
Barbados to hold a free and fair vote in 2024 with international observers
present.

That agreement saw the United States ease sanctions against the South
American country, allowing US-based Chevron to resume limited oil extraction
and leading the way to a prisoner swap.

The deal required that opposition candidates be able to appeal previous
rulings that they were ineligible to hold office.

However the Supreme Court, loyal to Maduro, recently upheld a 15-year ban on
opposition primary winner Maria Corina Machado, among other opposition
figures.

That resulted in the United States announcing it would reimpose some
sanctions.

Maduro invited Rodriguez on stage Sunday, praising the "strong manner" in
which he reacted to the backlash over the Machado ineligibility ruling.

"The meeting called for tomorrow (Monday) by the regime ignores the
commitment it signed in favor of free and fair elections in the Barbados
agreement," Machado said Sunday on X.