Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro was sworn in for a third presidential term on Friday, despite overwhelming evidence that he lost July’s presidential election to opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez, who abandoned plans to travel back to his country to force the hand of the military into swearing him in instead.

Top opposition leader Maria Corina Machado told supporters in a video that after long conversations it was decided that it was best for Gonzalez to suspend his plans to travel to Venezuela on Friday because of fears the regime might shoot down his plane.

“In its delusional paranoia the regime not only has closed down Venezuela’s air space, but has also activated its air defense system,” Machado said in a video on social media. “Therefore we have decided that it is not convenient for Edmundo to travel to Venezuela. I have asked him not to do it because his physical integrity is fundamental for the regime’s final defeat and for a democratic transition, which is very near.”

Since early Friday, air traffic in Venezuela had severely been restricted and main roads connecting the country to Colombia had been blocked amid Maduro’s plans to stop Gonzalez, who left the country after the regime sought to arrest him, from returning. The goverment had also ordered soldiers to take control of the streets, and Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said Gonzalez would be immediately arrested as soon as he set foot in the country.

In a video earlier this week, Cabello said that Gonzalez’s arrival would be treated as a foreign invasion and hinted that Venezuelan air defenses might shoot down the plane carrying him as if were dealing being used to traffic drugs.

González, who had met with different regional leaders including President Biden ahead of this trip to Venezuela, said in a brief video that he will continue to work on the conditions for his return to the country and “to assume, as established by the constitution and have been ordered to do so by the people, the presidency of Venezuela. I represent the will of almost eight million Venezuelans inside the fatherland and of millions of compatriots that were not allowed to vote overseas.”

Opposition leaders had hoped that Gonzalez’s arrival in Venezuela would lead to a large movement inside the country that would compel members of the military to demand that Maduro step down.

Most people in the military and police know that the socialist strongman lost the election, and would side with the people if the conditions were created for a showdown, an opposition spokesperson told the Miami Herald.

Recent polls show that about nine out of 10 Venezuelans believe that González won the election.

Machado, who had been violently arrested and released the day before by the regime’s security forces, said that Maduro’s decision to proceed with the inauguration ceremony constituted a coup d’état, and asked all Venezuelans to exercise their right to protest.

On Thursday, Machado was violently detained by security forces as she left a rally.

Machado confirmed Friday that she was violently forced down the motorcycle in which she was traveling after the massive rally she attended and said that she felt pain and had bruises on her body, but that she was fine otherwise. She confirmed one of the motorcycle riders accompanying her was shot in the leg.

She said that the security forces’ decision to let her go was proof “of the deep contradictions” inside the regime. “This erratic behavior is another demonstration of how divided they are at this time,” she said.

Maduro, meanwhile, took the oath of office Friday morning, two hours before it had been scheduled, in front of a very limited number of foreign guests that included Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel and Nicaraguan strongman Daniel Ortega, and called the ceremony “a great victory for the Venezuela people.”

“This Venezuelan constitutional inauguration could not be prevented and it is a great victory for Venezuelan democracy,” said Maduro, who has been in power since 2013. “Nobody in this world imposes a president on Venezuela.”

Most members of the international community have questioned the regime’s claims that Maduro won the July 28th presidential election with 51% of the vote, given that Caracas was never able to produce official tallies corroborating the count.

Opposition members did produce the tallies, which showed that Gonzalez won 67% to 30%.

In response to Maduro’s decision to proceed with the inauguration despite the substantial evidence of fraud, the U.S. government on Friday announced that it had decided to increase the reward it has previously offered for the capture of Maduro and of Cabello to $25 million each and announced a $15 million reward for Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez.

All three regime officials are accused of forming part of the so-called Soles Cartel and face drug-trafficking charges in U.S. courts. The rewards for Maduro and Cabello are the maximum amounts authorized in the U.S. for crimes linked to drug trafficking.

Speaking in a call with reporters, senior administration officials said the regime is now more isolated than ever before in light of “indisputable evidence” that González had won the election.

“We are working tirelessly with our allies in the region to send a clear message to Maduro to end his unjustified repression and respect the will of the Venezuelan people,” a senior official said. “It is important to underscore that Maduro stands mostly alone at this juncture, with few friends in the region and the world.”

In addition to the decision to increase the rewards , the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the Treasury Department introduced sanctions against Venezuelan eight officials who head economic agencies that play a key role in sustaining Maduro’s repression operations in detriment of the country’s democracy.

The sanctioned individuals include Hector Andres Obregon Perez, president of the state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela, and Ramon Celestino Velásquez Araguayan, the minister of transportation and president of the Venezuelan Consortium of Aeronautical Industries and Air Services.

The Treasury Department also imposed sanctions on high-level officials of the military and police who lead units that play leading roles in the regime’s repressive operations.

Bradley T. Smith, acting Treasury undersecretary for Financial Intelligence and the Fight against Terrorism, said the measures adopted on Friday will be accompanied by similar actions by allies including Canada, the European Union and the United Kingdom to punish the regime in a message of solidarity with the Venezuelan people.

“Since last year’s elections, Maduro and his associates have continued their repressive actions in Venezuela,” Smith said. “The United States, along with our like-minded partners, stands in solidarity with the Venezuelan people’s vote for new leadership and rejects Maduro’s fraudulent claim of victory.”

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