Uncertainty reigns again in Venezuelan politics. Although it was already known that Chavismo would oppose in every possible way the registration of Maria Corina Machado as a presidential candidate for 2024, it was not on the radar that she would annul the primary elections, as she did yesterday via the Supreme justice court.
(Read here: US warns Maduro that ‘it will take measures’ if he fails to comply with the agreement with the opposition)
The Electoral Chamber of the Supreme Court ordered to suspend “all the effects of the different phases of the electoral process conducted by the National Primary Commission (CNP) and also ratified the disqualifications imposed on Machado, Freddy Superlano and Henrique Capriles.”
All of this occurred after deputy José Brito, linked to Chavismo, reported to the court that he was not allowed to participate in the primaries and that, furthermore, the process was plagued by irregularities. This complaint occurred before the internal process in which Machado obtained 2.3 million votes of the 2.4 that were counted in the election.
Everything seems to indicate that
government
regretted having allowed that event and, given the results obtained, they have reasons for their concern
“She is the new ‘guaidocita’, she is the replacement for Guaidó,” said the deputy, referring to Machado at the same time that he celebrated the decision of the Supreme Court, controlled by Chavismo.
Machado has not commented on the events that occurred at the same time as the appearance at the Prosecutor’s Office of the organizers of the primary, among them the president of the CNP, Jesús María Casal, who arrived at the headquarters at 11 am yesterday. of the organization to meet with the Venezuelan prosecutor, Tarek William Saab.
This is what the director of the Datanalisis firm, Luis Vicente León, considered. The analyst explained that the court’s decision does not have any negative impact on the opposition leadership and “rather amplifies its national power and reinforces international rejection.”
The international issue is precisely at stake, especially on the side of the United States, a country that may go back on the relief of the sanctions it had granted to the oil industry in exchange for better conditions for the opposition.
“Everything seems to indicate that the Government regretted having allowed that event (the primaries) through negotiations and, given the results obtained, they probably have reasons to worry. But the remedy they apply seems much worse than the disease,” León insisted.
A week agothe United States had demanded that Nicolás Maduro that by the end of November he had to eliminate Machado’s disqualification and release the American prisoners in Caracas, to which Chavismo responded that it did not accept pressure.
Upon learning of the Supreme Court’s decision, Joe Biden’s administration responded and warned yesterday that it will take action if Maduro and his representatives do not comply with their commitments in the electoral roadmap. “We urge Nicolás Maduro and his representatives to maintain the commitments they made in the signing of the political roadmap agreement in Barbados,” said a spokesperson for the US State Department.
For Maduro, Washington’s demands are blackmail and he assures that Venezuela remains firm in the face of it.
“They have wanted to turn the sanctions into extortion, into blackmail against the country, and you know that we are not extortable, we are not blackmailable, we do not have that weakness, we are not afraid of anyone in this world,” the president said a few years ago. days in response to the demands of the United States.
EL TIEMPO consulted with Jorge Rodríguez, head of the Chavismo delegation in the dialogues with the opposition, about whether at the end of November – the limit that the United States set to see progress in Venezuela, since otherwise it can reverse the relief of sanctions – there will be no They would comply with Washington’s demands, and he insisted in Maduro’s same speech assuring that they were not “blackmailable.”
For some analysts, Maduro fell into a “perfect” trap by the State Department, which pushed to hold the primaries. And although they already knew that the winner was Machado, they did not have such a high number of participation, almost equal to that of the 2012 primaries, when Capriles won and Machado came in third place. At that time, participation was 3,000,000 people, but there was no exodus of almost 8,000,000 nor a deep economic crisis.
From the perspective of political scientist Daniel Arias, Diosdado Cabello “was the only one” who understood that the internal process of the opposition should not be carried out, because it would be a kind of “thermometer” to measure the discontent of Venezuelans towards Maduro, whose popularity did not exceeds 20 percent, according to several opinion polls.
For Arias, now Chavismo must see how to overcome this test by 2024.
ANA MARÍA RODRÍGUEZ BRAZÓN
TIME CORRESPONDENT
CARACAS
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