Maduro sworn in for a second term as head of an isolated Venezuela

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is sworn in on Thursday for a second term at the head of a diplomatically isolated country and the failing economy.

The conditions for his reelection in May, after a vote boycotted by the major opposition parties, led almost all 14 countries in the Lima Regional Group to ask Maduro to give up his load. Only Mexico has disassociated itself from this call.

The new president of the Venezuelan Parliament, where the opposition is the majority, said for the weekend that Nicolas Maduro was a "usurper".

The Washington Post, citing an anonymous source in the US intelligence service, reports that Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez has asked Maduro to resign, threatening to leave the government if the president did not obey.

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