María Corina Machado has kicked the ball at the Government. This Friday she went to the Supreme Court of Justice to request a review of the disqualification of Chavismo that weighs on her. She does so in the last hours of the deadline agreed between the opposition and Nicolás Maduro, the result of dialogue to achieve democratic guarantees in the 2024 presidential elections. “They are not going to take us off the electoral route,” the leader said as she left the headquarters of the highest court in Caracas. “I'm going to do everything I have to do to get to the end. The ball is now in the regime's court. It is up to them to comply. Maduro will have to decide if it is counted or not counted. There are no excuses here,” she added.
Machado had been elusive when announcing this step, which until today was not clear that she would take. The opponent has reiterated on several occasions that she has never received official notification of the political veto that was imposed on her last August, a few days after she presented herself as a candidate in the primaries, which she finally won with 92% of the votes, in a process that managed to attract more than two million Venezuelans.
Confirmation of his attendance at the Supreme Court was first given by the United States, through the account on the social network X of that country's embassy for Venezuela. “We applaud María Corina Machado and the other candidates for their courage and willingness to appeal their disqualifications. Now it is up to the representatives of Nicolás Maduro to demonstrate their commitment to competitive and inclusive elections,” says the message, in which they also reiterate the demand for the release of American and Venezuelan political prisoners, including Roberto Abdul, part of Machado's team, arrested last week. “We will continue to evaluate sanctions based on significant and tangible progress, according to the Barbados agreement, to restore democracy,” he adds.
Chavismo has accused the coup. The president of Parliament and head of the negotiating delegation, Jorge Rodríguez, responded almost immediately to the embassy's message. “Venezuela does not accept guidelines from anyone,” he said in response to the official publication of the @usembassyve account. “It is not an accredited embassy in our country, but a propaganda office at the service of the darkest interests against the peace of Venezuela, it persists in its colonialist whims that, if they were not so tragic and ridiculous, would be comical.”
The Barbados agreements have finally given traction to a crisis that seemed stagnant, between an opposition disjointed in its strategy and weakened by the persecution that has left a significant number of prisoners and exiles and Chavismo clinging to power. In the document signed in October it was agreed to allow the participation of all candidates in the electoral contest. Thus, a door was opened to unblock the political disqualifications with which Maduro has managed to block his competition in recent years.
The push on this point, however, came from Washington, which relaxed oil sanctions for six months and cornered the Government with an ultimatum to present concrete results before November 30 in its commitments to expand democratic guarantees in the country. specifically on the release of political prisoners and the creation of a mechanism so that those disqualified could appeal their cases. Maduro released five opponents and, also, on the last day of the deadline, in a brief statement released by the Norwegian facilitators of the negotiations, the procedure that has now allowed Machado to request a review of his case to confront Maduro in the electoral ballot.
This, of course, has conditions. The procedure warns that “those interested” in reviewing their cases must refrain from presenting in the lawsuit and in public statements “offensive or disrespectful concepts” towards State institutions. “The Political-Administrative Chamber will rule on the admission of the claim and the precautionary protection requested in accordance with the principles of speed, efficiency and effectiveness included in the Constitution,” the mechanism specifies.
The international community has pushed the conflict to this stage. Maduro is at his worst, with little financial room to make substantial improvements that would allow him to take advantage in elections in which he has real competition and is observed internationally. The recent front that he has opened with Guyana in the Essequibo dispute has been interpreted by some analysts as a last resort that would allow him, if the situation escalates, to declare a state of emergency and suspend the elections.
In some sectors, there is even talk that Chavismo is evaluating a second option to compete in the presidential elections. On the other hand, for now the Unitary Platform and those who competed in the primaries have closed ranks en bloc around Machado, and there seems to be no possibility that his candidacy could be divided.
Other figures who operate outside the opposition spectrum and have sometimes been instrumentalized by Chavismo, such as the former leader of Voluntad Popular and former political prisoner, Daniel Ceballos, also requested to review their disqualifications. There are also other candidates, such as outsider Benjamín Rausseu, a businessman and comedian who at the beginning of the year was second in the polls, after Machado, and who refused to compete in the primaries.
A date has not yet been set on the calendar for the elections that should occur in the second half of 2024, as agreed in Barbados, but in the immediate future, the next movement is in the hands of the Venezuelan justice system and its timing.
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