Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, whose claim to victory at the polls has been widely contested, is no friend of billionaire Elon Musk, and the feeling is clearly mutual, with their war of words escalating amid the political crisis in Caracas.

Musk -- who leads SpaceX and Tesla, and owns the social network X -- is a capitalist icon who backs Donald Trump, meaning he is everything that the socialist Maduro despises.

But in recent days, the bus driver-turned-leader of oil-rich, cash-poor Venezuela has Musk -- who he calls his "arch-enemy" -- in his sights.

Maduro has accused Musk of being behind "attacks against Venezuela" and possibly the mastermind of an alleged "computer hacking" at the National Electoral Council (CNE), which declared Maduro the winner of Sunday's vote without providing detailed data.

On Tuesday, following a meeting of Maduro's top political and military advisors, he announced the creation of a special committee, aided by Russian and Chinese experts, to evaluate the nation's biosecurity and an attack on the CNE's communications systems.

"The attacks, I am sure, were directed by the power of Elon Musk," he said.

Opposition figures and observers do not believe there was actually a hack, but that authorities self-sabotaged the system so they would not have to provide the real election results.

Before voters cast their ballots, the 61-year-old Maduro was running well behind opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia in independent opinion polls.

Late Tuesday, Maduro addressed hundreds of supporters from his balcony -- and once again attacked the 53-year-old Musk.

"Venezuela, as I said yesterday and today, is facing domestic and international aggression from world powers, and now it is evident that Elon Musk is obsessed with the idea of taking over Venezuela and ruling it from abroad," Maduro said.

"He is largely responsible for these attacks and acts of aggression," he added, suggesting the existence of a "global alliance of the far right, the fascist far right, drug traffickers, Elon Musk and the imperialist US government."

"All those who come after Venezuela, we will eliminate them."