2024-03-19 15:59:06
image source, Reuters
Caption,
María Corina Machado won the opposition primaries with 92%.
Article information
- Author, Editorial
- Scroll, BBC News World
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1 hour
With the date of the presidential elections in Venezuela set for July 28 and the unanimous support for Nicolás Maduro by the ruling party to seek his second re-election, it still remains a mystery what the opposition is going to do in the face of those elections. .
Its leader, María Corina Machado, elected with 92% of the votes in the primaries held last October, has not lost hope of being the candidate despite the fact that the Venezuelan justice system ratified her disqualification from running for public office.
After these results were known, the government described the primaries as “a fraud” and urged the authorities to investigate what it called “a show.”
Days later, the electoral chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice ordered the suspension of the results of the primaries after an appeal filed by the official deputy José Brito, who denounced irregularities and described them as a “big scam,” without offering evidence.
Machado is convinced, as she said in an interview with the BBC’s Newsday program, that the ban on her is nothing more than an example of the government’s fear of suffering “a crushing defeat.”
In his words, President Nicolás Maduro “is boycotting” the elections as demonstrated by the fact that he has not complied with the provisions of the Barbados agreement between the ruling party, the opposition and the United States.
Machado also referred to the consequences of Maduro continuing to govern, which could cause “the largest wave of migration we have seen so far.”
In addition, she left open the possibility that someone could replace her as the opposition candidate in the elections.
Below we offer you Machado’s interview with the BBC, a few days before the deadline given by the Venezuelan electoral authorities for candidates who aspire to the presidency to run (March 21 and 25).
image source, Reuters
Caption,
Machado believes that for the first time since Hugo Chávez was elected in 1998, the opposition has a majority.
BBC: Do you think you will be able to register as a candidate in time?
María Corina Machado: It’s difficult to say. It is obvious that Maduro fears the possibility of competing against me because he knows that he would have a crushing defeat.
They are trying to block me because it is the first time in 25 years that we have been under a Chavista regime in which we are facing a presidential election with more than 80% percent support, so they had clearly said that they will not let me run.
If you cannot register as a candidate, will there be an opposition candidate? Will you allow someone to appear on your behalf?
I have been very clear that they will not remove us from the electoral package. We go and we are fighting for free elections and it is Maduro who is boycotting them.
We want a transition, a peaceful route, while Maduro is provoking violence and what we are proposing is a serious negotiation for a transition with guarantees and Maduro refuses.
It sounds like he will allow another person to register, so that people who do not want to support Maduro have an alternative on the ballot.
We are fighting day by day, you can imagine that I am not going to close any possibilities at this moment.
The important thing is that our support is growing day by day and Maduro has lost his entire social base and even the possibilities he had before, the mechanism of blackmailing people, no longer works.
That is why I hope that the international community, the world that knows what is at stake right now and what it would mean for Venezuela and the region if Maduro postpones a transition by force, [se sume] to maintain a united and solid position in terms of our rights to a free and fair election in Venezuela as the framework of the Barbados agreement had clearly established.
Whether he is allowed to run or whether an opposition figure is allowed to run in his place. Will they be free and fair elections?
First of all, I want to insist on this, the Barbados agreement, which was signed by the regime, says in its first provision, its first point, that the parties are free to choose the process through which they choose their candidate.
And that is precisely what the democratic forces did on October 22 in a heroic civic movement in which in one day almost three million people voted and elected me as a legitimate candidate with more than 92% of the votes. They try to prevent me, prohibit me from participating.
Secondly, they are unilaterally imposing a calendar that makes the deployment of an international observation mission almost impossible, from the internal point of view, and they make it very, very difficult for the Venezuelan people, for the young people who have not registered for vote, millions, and also for the millions of people who have been forced to leave our country -remember, a quarter of the Venezuelan population has been forced to leave-, to register and vote.
And also the regime in recent hours has been nullifying the right of the political parties that support me to present candidates, but it is Maduro who blocks that path.
image source, Reuters
Caption,
President Nicolás Maduro during the acceptance ceremony as the official candidate.
If you are not allowed to show up. Do you think the United States should restore sanctions on the Venezuelan economy?
That was part of the agreement that the regime signed with the United States, in which both parties committed to different actions.
The United States has fulfilled its agreement and what they announced they would do, the regime has not done, on the contrary, they have violated each and every one of the terms of the Barbados agreement and have dramatically increased repression and persecution.
Even as we speak, there are four managers of my campaign in four different states of Venezuela who disappeared by regime forces and have now been held as prisoners in a prison called El Helicoide, which is the largest torture center in Latin America.
They don’t like me traveling around the country by plane, they block the routes, they attack us and I think the world must hold Maduro responsible, because the consequences of Maduro staying by force would be enormous.
Not only for the region, because the region should prepare for the largest wave of migration we have seen so far. I am talking about millions of Venezuelans who will flee if they lose hope for freedom and prosperity in their homeland.
I also have to insist on how the very dangerous ties that Maduro has with Russia and Iran are intensifying and what it would mean for Western democracies if Maduro stays by force.
So this is a critical moment, very delicate hours, and what both Venezuelans and the international democratic community do in the coming hours, I think will be critical for the coming decades.
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