The ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) proclaimed this Saturday, March 16, President Nicolás Maduro as its candidate for the elections on July 28, in which he will seek his third term in power, which he reached in 2013. While , the opposition is at a crossroads after the disqualification of María Corina Machado, the candidate who could win the race and who, despite being out of the dispute by decision of Justice, says that she maintains her aspiration.
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More than four million members of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), which Nicolás Maduro presides, decided to nominate the 61-year-old president for the July 28 elections.
“Here there is only one destiny: popular victory,” said Maduro after receiving the nomination at a congress of that political group in Caracas. “Whatever they do, whatever they say, they have not and will never be able to defeat us.”
The event was a formality. Maduro has been campaigning for weeks and multiplies his public appearances, which until recently was an exception. Heir to the late Hugo Chávez, between the two of them they have governed Venezuela for a quarter of a century.
“The United Socialist Party of Venezuela, from its bases, has decided by acclamation, by consensus, that the candidate of the Bolivarian Revolution is Nicolás Maduro,” said Chavismo's number two, Diosdado Cabello. “Here is your party, the party of Commander Chávez,” he added, addressing the ruler.
The opposition seeks, for its part, to define against the clock a name that can apply in the face of the disqualification from holding public office of María Corina Machado, favorite in the polls.
The center-right candidate, however, has ruled out abandoning her candidacy and continues campaigning.
Read also“Stronger than ever”: Maduro's rival clings to her candidacy in Venezuela
Economic collapse and sanctions
In February, Chavismo celebrated 25 years in powerthe last 11 led by Maduro after the death of Chávez in 2013.
His Presidency has been marked by complaints of human rights violations, international sanctions, the collapse of the economy – the GDP contracted 80% in a decade – and the migration of more than seven million people fleeing hunger and poverty.
Maduro also neutralized any threat to his power, such as the so-called interim presidency of Juan Guaidó, exiled in the United States, and now Machado, whom the government accuses of corruption and of calling for a foreign invasion, although she denies it.
Maduro's re-election in 2018 was called “fraudulent” by the opposition, which boycotted the elections, the European Union (EU) and the United States, which imposed a battery of sanctions to try, unsuccessfully, to remove him from power.
“Force errors”
The National Electoral Council (CNE) announced the invitation to observation missions from the European Union and other actors, although so far it has not formalized it.
The registration of candidates starts next Thursday and will last for four days, which leaves little room for maneuver for the main opposition coalition, the Unitary Platform, which insists on Machado in public while deciding behind the scenes who to launch.
The Government “seeks to force errors on the part of the opposition and the international community, especially with the control of the timing of the electoral calendar,” Mariano de Alba, senior advisor of the International Crisis Group, explained to AFP.
“It is not clear to me that the opposition can retain its competitiveness if it makes the crucial decisions that lie ahead at the last minute,” he added. “If this were the case, the Government could have a simpler electoral outlook and could even afford to make additional concessions.”
“Iron Lady vs. Super Mustache”
Machado swept the opposition primaries last October and if he could participate, polls agree, he would defeat Maduro by a very wide margin.
He has ruled out abandoning the campaign, despite the fact that four members of his team have already been arrested. He assures that he will maintain his busy schedule of touring the country.
“The iron lady versus Super Bigote. That's who we're going to defeat,” said Karín Rodríguez, a 58-year-old bricklayer in the state of Carabobo (central-north). He refers to a nickname of Machado and to the propaganda cartoon that shows the president as a superhero on state TV.
“And if she can't go to the elections we will vote for whoever she says.”
With AFP and EFE
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