Venezuela is heading towards presidential elections marked by uncertainty. The leading voice is led by a woman who is the “candidate-non-candidate.” Maria Corina Machado has become a political phenomenon that continues to mark milestones. Today she is the one who mobilizes the energy of the vote. A year ago, few were betting on her permanence on the rugged electoral route. Politics has transformed the Venezuelan presidential campaign into a sentimental election.
Machado was disqualified by the Government of Nicolas Maduro. Even so, she swept the primaries with more than 90% of the votes, surpassed 60% of voting intention as a pre-candidate for the presidency and has managed to endorse that support to those who have replaced her, not once, but twice. . She has also done it all, censored in the traditional media, harassed by the Government and with constant threats against her allies.
Every tour he makes through the country is followed on social networks and sets the agenda of Chavismo. People make her the repository of their pain and the hope of change. Frames of photographs of her once show her as Freedom guiding the people by raising a Venezuelan flag in the middle of the crowds; in others, as a representation of mercy, especially when the men hug her and cry in her arms and, on other occasions, the image is more Caribbean. We see her climbing on improvised platforms, mounted on the roof of a vehicle, on a horse or on a motorcycle, with the agility of someone doing capers.
For historian Margarita López Maya, Machado has become a charismatic leader very similar to former presidents Carlos Andrés Pérez (twice ruler, between 1974 and 1979 and 1989 and 1993) and Hugo Chávez. In the preceding months he had to make tough decisions. Among them, whether or not to continue on the electoral path. After selecting as a replacement Corina Yoris, a philosopher and Real Madrid fan, who was also vetoed by the Government, Machado opted for a candidate who did not want to be: Edmundo González Urrutia, a diplomat who feels more comfortable behind the footlights.
Any screenwriter, at this point, knows that they have the elements to write a saga. For communications specialist María Fernanda Madriz, “there would not be a charismatic María Corina if there were not a country that was waiting for her and to some extent needed her. A whole country. The people, of course, but also the political parties of all stripes that have had to go out and hit the streets, both those who did it before and sat back, and those who never did it.”
But what differentiates Machado’s leadership from other female and male leaders in the region? For Mireya Rodríguez, former parliamentarian and creator of an academy for female politicians, Machado “has demonstrated a remarkable ability to evolve and adapt to the changing circumstances of Venezuelan politics.” “This transformation has not only been political, but also personal. “Her focus on empathy, understanding, and family reunification has strengthened her leadership, making it more inclusive and sensitive to the needs of the Venezuelan people,” she continues.
Back to the less symbolic, López Maya highlights that although González Urrutia is the opposition candidate, the one who has the political capital to win this election is Machado. “She is the leader of the change that endorses it, as Chávez endorsed candidates and mayors, among others.” This effect, which in Venezuela they call an aircraft carrier, has an impact even on the opposite sidewalk. He number two of Chavismo, Diosdado Cabello, adjusted his mobilization plan to that of Machado. He does not lose footing or step. The soldier chases her from town to town. All of which gives a more heroic aspect to the opponent’s feat.
For Madriz, Machado’s prominence may indicate a more complex scenario of transformation in the country. “She is like a magnet, but the pathos collective transcends it, with the understanding that magnets only attract iron and not other metals, and that iron is not found in any territory. Magnet and iron need to coincide in a particular type of terrain that allows them to attract and meet each other.” This expert from the Communications Research Institute and student of former President Rómulo Betancourt explains that “historical changes require a favorable political-social terrain for a specific type of leadership to synchronize and mesh with a particular state of mind that, in turn, time, anchors in an experience that has become survival, to some extent, for almost all Venezuelans.”
This is not the first time that Venezuela has experienced a phenomenon of charismatic leadership. The most recent was that of Chávez. The Spanish journalist Beatriz Lecumberri collected in her book The sentimental revolution, (Ediciones Puntocero, 2012) testimonies that reflect the type of connection that Chávez, his followers and also his detractors established. For Lopez Maya, what is happening with Maria Corina Machado is positive because she awakened hope for change and with her tours she waters the seeds of the national electoral movement, “a super important piece for a strong participation on 28-J and to open a democratic transition.”
But there is another side of the coin. “We all know firsthand the consequences of not being able to put restrictions on charismatic leadership, and even more so in Venezuela, where there is no institutionality of counterweights, authoritarianism can continue, although of a different kind.” For Mireya Rodriguez, who analyzes Machado’s political career, the new attributes of this leader will emerge in accordance with the new challenges that will face her: among them the result of the July 28 election. For now she identifies three sensitive areas: the articulation between her supporters and new allies; the management of the questioned leadership, as well as its physical exposure. Despite the uncertainty and tensions, we Venezuelans are heading towards an election day that is so atypical that the leader of the movement is a woman who was denied the right to register as a candidate.
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