Trujillo, Falcón, San Fernando de Apure, Carora and Barquisimeto, Ciudad Bolívar, Monagas: the tours carried out by the first vice president of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, Diosdado Cabello, in support of the official candidate Nicolás Maduro, have taken, at least, the Be careful to coincide with all the destinations chosen by the opposition leader María Corina Machado to campaign. Where Machado arrives – now accompanied by the presidential candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia -, Cabello appears, lambasting her adversaries, crying out against international sanctions, uttering threats, reviewing her militancy and checking the logistical mechanisms of 1X10 for the towing of voters. (the proposal that each Chavista drag ten people from his environment).
The circumstance has caused some surprise because, if Chavismo has always taken care of one thing, it is to stay ahead of its adversaries on the information agenda. The current pro-government rallies are usually held under the call to protest against international sanctions, as responsible for the country’s paralysis, and to accuse the Venezuelan opposition of promoting them. That is, blame Machado for this.
While Cabello exercises a kind of dialing Regarding Machado and Edmundo, Maduro, on the one hand, and Jorge Rodríguez, on the other, continue with the proselytizing journey for the revolutionary candidacy in rather modest concentrations. The design of this multi-pronged strategy, which is protected by powerful advertising about the figure of Maduro as a cult leader, has been defined in the work meetings of the campaign command Our Venezuela, which brings together the official parties, met a few days ago at the Humboldt Hotel, at the top of Cerro El Ávila that dominates the city. As on other occasions, Jorge Rodríguez will be the fundamental coordinator of Chavismo’s electoral teams.
“With this measure, Chavismo is making an effort to retain its most committed voters, hard Chavismo,” says an experienced political leader close to the opposition command who has preferred to keep his name confidential. “What Cabello does makes sense, what he seeks is to avoid a run by his people, make an appearance, ask for reports, put pressure,” he adds.
Unlike what frequently happens, there have been no incidents between militants of the two currents, at least for now. Machado and González Urrutia – as well as a good part of the leadership of the democratic camp – are prevented by the authorities from taking planes, so they travel the country by car. The attitude of the military at the checkpoints until recently was not very friendly, but the animosity has also been subsiding.
Chavismo has deployed the entire apparatus. “We have to go a little further, to the house of those who are dissatisfied, of those who said ‘I don’t want to get involved in politics anymore,’” Cabello recently declared at a rally in his native state of Monagas. “We have to go look for them all, speak as brothers, as comrades, continue adding to the revolutionary forces.”
“Sometimes Chavismo makes these types of decisions,” says historian and political analyst Pedro Benítez. “It happened many times in 2001, in 2002, during the first popular protests against Hugo Chávez. When the opposition made a call to the street, the Chavistas made another one at the same time, in a place not too far away. It was a way to gauge the opponent, to make himself feel close, to challenge him in the street.” The difference in the size of the concentrations in hamlets, towns and cities, for now, given the images that both commands upload to social networks, is favorable to the opposition.
“I have an additional hypothesis with this topic,” says Benítez. “Chavismo has a kind of obsession, it wants to closely monitor the emergence of the leadership of María Corina Machado, a person who represents the antithesis of Chavista values, the symbol of everything that Chavismo in its speech has abhorred in these years,” he says.
After denying the European observation, the Chavista authorities have repeatedly asked the opposition to commit to respecting the electoral results on the day of the consultation and have denounced that violent acts are being organized to ignore them. “We warn you once and for all: anyone who calls for violence and disturbs public peace before, during, or after the electoral process is going to prison,” declared Jorge Rodríguez in a recent press conference.
“The opposition is preparing to claim fraud, now they are launching polls that show them winners,” Cabello said at another rally. “We cannot prevent them from showing polls, but we can build our victory. They need to have a prior narrative to be able to set up that file, that’s what theirs is, the guarimbas [barricadas callejeras], violence, fascism. We will not allow it. Our victory has to be resounding.” Even if that means chasing Machado and Edmundo wherever they go.
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