2024-01-26 22:53:40
The Supreme Court of Justice of Venezuela ratified the disqualification of opposition presidential candidate María Corina Machado and former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles.
Caracas —
The Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) of Venezuela ratified this Friday the disqualification from holding public office of the opposition presidential candidate María Corina Machado and the former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles.
According to the TSJ, the appeal that Machado exercised on December 15 “does not comply with the requirements established and demanded” in the Barbados agreement signed between the government and the opposition last year.
“The regime decided to end the Barbados agreement. What does not end is our fight to conquer democracy through free and fair elections. Maduro and his criminal system chose the worst path for them: fraudulent elections. That’s not gonna happen. Let no one doubt it, this is until the end”, reacted Machado on the social network X, following the sentence was known.
Also read Venezuela’s opposition organizes for presidential elections without certainty regarding Machado’s qualification
Machado, who with more than 2 million votes won the presidential primary of the opposition held in October, presented on December 15 before the TSJ a claim along with a demand for precautionary protection once morest the “de facto route” of the disqualification from holding public office for 15 years that the Comptroller General of the Republic (CGR) would have imposed on him, an action that he claims was never notified.
According to the TSJ, Machado is disqualified, among other reasons, for promoting international sanctions and the alleged corruption plot that the political leader Juan Guaidó would have led during the interim.
Previously, President Nicolás Maduro assured that The Barbados agreements are “deadly wounded” and Jorge Rodríguez, head of the official delegation in negotiations with the opposition, said that there would be no possibility of Machado being a candidate for any position.
Political disqualification prevents Machado from formalizing his candidacy for the presidential elections scheduled for this year.
Who is María Corina Machado, what does she propose for Venezuela and what do her detractors say?
Capriles will also remain disqualified
The TSJ also considered inadmissible the request of Capriles who, according to the court, also does not comply with the requirements signed and demanded in the agreement “and consequently” is disqualified for fifteen years from the exercise of public functions.
Capriles, two-time presidential candidate, was disqualified in 2017 “due to administrative irregularities” that allegedly occurred while he was governor of the state of Miranda.
On the contrary, the TSJ decided to enable the former governor of the state of Zulia, Pablo Pérez, to hold public office; former parliamentarian, Richard Mardo; the politician Leocenis García and the former mayor of the San Cristóbal municipality of the Táchira state, Daniel Ceballos, who exercised different appeals once morest their disqualifications.
In November, Norway, a facilitating country in the negotiations between the government of President Nicolás Maduro and the opposition, disclosed a procedure agreed by the parties for the review of disqualifications to hold public office.
The mechanism establishes that “each disqualified person” might file an appeal between December 1 and 15 once morest the measure before the TSJ, which “will rule on the admission of the claim and the requested precautionary protection.”
Also read The US demands an end to political harassment in Venezuela, warns that actions once morest the Barbados agreement “will have consequences”
Following the signing of the agreement in Barbados, the US government issued general licenses that “temporarily” authorizesome transactions involving the Venezuelan oil industry sector, but warned that the measures would be reversed “if the stipulated commitments are not met,” including the lifting of disqualifications and the release of political prisoners.
Late last month, the US government freed Alex Saab, a close ally of President Nicolás Maduro, as part of an exchange for American citizens imprisoned in Venezuela. Some 30 Venezuelans considered political prisoners were also released.
Recently, the US government has expressed concern regarding acts of political persecution by the Venezuelan government once morest dissent, and warned that actions once morest the Barbados agreement “will have consequences.”
Different sectors of civil society have denounced that the disqualifications are “arbitrary” and that they have been used by the government to “eliminate” opponents or dissident Chavistas who aspire to elected office.
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