2023-10-21 05:43:04
CARACAS (AP) — María Corina Machado, the legislator with the most votes in the 2010 legislative elections in Venezuela and who was later stripped of her parliamentary investiture, years following distancing herself from the main opposition leaders and consistently boycotting previous elections, once morest all odds returned to the electoral arena and now appears as a favorite to emerge victorious in Sunday’s primaries in which the adversaries of President Nicolás Maduro will choose a unitary candidate for the 2024 presidential elections.
His irreducible stance towards Maduro and his abundant criticism of the leaders of the largest opposition parties, whom he accuses of failing in their policy to separate the president from office and, already weakened, of trying to reach an agreement with him in exchange for maintaining small quotas. of power, have made it the best option for many Venezuelans who hope that the ruling party finally suffers a defeat following 25 years of rule in this South American country.
The former congresswoman now affirms that “the time has come” to confront the ruling party electorally.
Machado, 56, made a complete change with respect to his direction of staying away from the policies of the largest opposition parties that promoted the primaries and refusing to participate in elections organized by the electoral body, where the allies of the ruling party have been the majority for more than two decades, and which, according to critics of the government, does not provide guarantees for the elections to be fair and transparent.
Machado, an industrial engineer, specialized in finance, is represented in the primaries as the standard bearer of the Vente Venezuela party, a hard-line group that she founded in May 2012 and to which the National Electoral Council (CNE) – which is in charge of organizing the elections national, state and municipal in the country– denied registration as a political organization. Nine other candidates are participating in the primaries.
The former legislator, daughter of a wealthy steel businessman, achieved public notoriety in 2002, as one of the founders of SUMATE, a non-governmental organization that oversees electoral transparency.
SUMATE was in charge of the logistics and technical assistance of the recall referendum that in 2004 attempted to remove the then president Hugo Chávez (1999-2013) through a referendum.
Weeks before Chávez’s victory in the referendum, Machado became a political figure by vehemently denouncing the use given to the signatories’ data collected by SUMATE, which was delivered by the electoral authority to the ruling party.
After the identity of the voters who expressed themselves in favor of calling the referendum was publicly exposed, hundreds of people reported that between 2003 and 2004 they were fired from their positions in public companies and were prevented from contracting with the State.
Years later, Chávez asked directors and official officials to “bury” the aforementioned list that circulated for a long period on the Internet.
Machado’s active promotion of democracy earned him recognition outside the country. Machado was received at the White House in 2005 by then-US President George W. Bush.
The former deputy has had a judicial process pending since 2014, following together with other politicians considered intransigent, she promoted the initiative called “the exit” to pressure political changes in the country from the streets, which triggered a series of street protests that spread throughout the country. regarding three months. The protests left 43 dead.
This initiative was not widely supported by the opposition, which began to generate friction that worsened over time.
The judicial process once morest Machado for the crime of conspiracy has been in limbo.
Also in 2014, the ruling majority in the Legislature removed Machado following he accepted the position of “alternate representative” of Panama before the Organization of American States (OAS) for the purpose of denouncing alleged crimes committed by the Maduro government. She was subsequently fined a sanction that disqualified her from holding public office for one year, preventing her from running in the 2015 parliamentary elections that the opposition overwhelmingly won.
In June, following her registration as a candidate for the primaries, the Comptroller General’s Office disqualified her for 15 years, ensuring that she participated in an alleged corruption plot orchestrated by opposition leader Juan Guaidó, who proclaimed himself interim president in 2019 when he led the National Assembly. The Comptroller’s Office did not present evidence.
Machado was not part of the Legislature chaired by Guaidó and was among his fiercest critics.
In Venezuela, political disqualification is an accessory penalty that applies when there is a final judicial ruling for a punishable act, when it is also determined that abuse of power or position occurred, among other cases provided for in local laws.
Critics of the Maduro government denounce that disqualification has been used for years as a political weapon
Machado is divorced and has three children, Henrique, Ricardo and Ana.
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