Elon Musk has accepted a bizarre challenge from Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to engage in a physical fight. The challenge came after Musk repeatedly accused Maduro of “major election fraud” in Venezuela’s recent presidential election and called him a “dictator” on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. Maduro and his opponents both claimed victory in Sunday’s election, but the release of official vote tallies was delayed before Maduro was declared the winner with 51% of the vote.
This result has been widely questioned, and Musk has called the election a fraud. He also reposted a tweet from Argentine President Javier Milei urging Maduro to “recognize the defeat after years of socialism, misery, decadence, and death.”
In response to Musk’s attacks on social media, Maduro appeared on national television in Venezuela and said, “Do you want to fight? Let’s do it.
Elon Musk, I’m ready. I’m not afraid of you. Let’s fight wherever you want.”
On Wednesday afternoon, Musk replied with “I accept” and further taunted Maduro by saying, “He will chicken out.” Musk added, “If I win, he resigns as dictator of Venezuela.
If he wins, I give him a free ride to Mars.” As of last Wednesday afternoon, Maduro has not responded, and the details of how or when this fight will occur are unclear. Since the disputed election, criticism has mounted against Maduro.
Musk responds to Maduro’s challenge
Despite promises of free and fair elections, allegations of irregularities have persisted. The official results showed that Maduro had 51% of the vote and retired diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez 44%. The opposition claimed to have beaten Maduro by at least 3.9 million votes.
In the aftermath, deadly protests have led to the deaths of more than a dozen people around the country and over 1,000 people have been arrested. Venezuela’s Supreme Court, closely aligned with Maduro’s government, has called for an audit of the presidential election. This is not the first time Musk has issued a public challenge.
Last year, he proposed a fight with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, which Zuckerberg seemed to take seriously before plans fell through. Musk commented on Wednesday, “Maduro is a big guy himself and probably knows how to fight, so this would be a real fight. Zuck is a little fella, so that would be a short fight. lol.”
As the co-founder of six companies and the world’s wealthiest man with an estimated net worth of $240.6 billion, Musk bought Twitter in 2022 for $44 billion and renamed it X.
He also holds stakes in Tesla and SpaceX, among other ventures. This unusual, high-profile feud has garnered significant attention and raised questions about the ongoing political crisis in Venezuela and the role of social media in such conflicts.
