MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Musk agrees to fight Maduro “mano a mano”

I'll take you on your ride to Mars offer “but you're coming with me,” Maduro said

Tycoon Elon Musk Wednesday accepted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's challenge to engage in a fistfight. “If I win, he resigns as dictator of Venezuela,” the Tesla CEO said in his reply. If defeated, Musk -whose company SpaceX has launched numerous satellites into orbit- also offered to give Maduro a free ride to Mars.

Maduro said he would acquiesce to it. “But you're coming with me,” he said during a press conference in Caracas as if Musk was watching. A social network user also suggested people voted on who they thought would win the bout.

The Chavist leader Maduro had singled out Musk as one of the masterminds behind a cyberattack against Venezuela's National Electoral Council's (CNE) systems which would account for the delay in producing the minutes the international community requires to verify whether Maduro had indeed defeated Edmundo González Urrutia or it was all a fabrication.

”Elon Musk, whoever messes with me, dries up! (...) You want a fight? I'm not afraid of you, wherever you want, in the neighborhoods... If you want, I want!” Maduro said in his victory speech Sunday as he dubbed Musk his “new archenemy” who wanted to disrupt peace and stability in the South American country.

I’m coming for you Maduro!

I will carry you to Gitmo on a donkey  https://t.co/RB5qltxsYI

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 1, 2024

Musk, who has openly spoken about a “major election fraud” in Venezuela, has already challenged Facebook founder and business rival Mark Zuckerberg to a mixed martial arts fight inside a cage, which has so far not taken place. Comparing Maduro to Zuckerberg, he said that in the face of a burly Maduro, “Zuck is a little guy, so it would be a quick fight, LOL.” He also said that Maduro would ”chicken out” before the Bolivarian leader's response went public.