The United States set a deadline that has almost passed. On November 30, the deadline set by Secretary of State Anthony Blinken expires for the government of Nicolás Maduro to “present a mechanism” or “initiate a process” – as the ultimatum was later translated – that allows the participation of all opposition candidates in a future Presidential campaign, candidates blocked by lawsuits aimed precisely at eliminating free competition in the 2024 presidential election.
This Wednesday, the head of the Unity Platform delegation, Gerardo Blyde, from the opposition side, said that in the next few hours there will be news of this progress, which has been expected since the signing of the Barbados Accords last month. “Between today and tomorrow, a procedure must be established, a procedure must be announced that can provide the tool, the formula and the mechanism to create the permits.” It is included in the agreement” and applies to “every Venezuelan who seeks the office of President and who may be administratively disqualified by the Office of the Comptroller General.”
There is no clarity about what the process will be. Portal has suggested that under pressure from Washington, it was agreed that those disqualified could appeal their actions to the Venezuelan judicial system, which as a whole works in favor of the government. María Corina Machado, elected as a unity opposition candidate, would be one of those who could benefit from this mechanism. But it was the Supreme Court itself that, in a recent ruling, ordered to suspend the effects of the elections in which Machado was the standard-bearer, and in the same decision confirmed all the disqualifications imposed on the main opposition leaders because of who were prevented from doing so To for a position as a candidate. In addition, the public prosecutor’s office is prosecuting the organizers of the opposition elections, who are being investigated for fraud and other crimes.
The crowded opposition primaries in October, in which candidate María Corina Machado was elected with 92% of the vote, were a blow to Chavismo, which had already begun a direct dialogue with the United States, seeing its main objective as the to lift sanctions that have kept him financially restricted since 2019. Joe Biden’s administration put the ball in Maduro’s court by easing oil sanctions for six months, a move that has already quickly mobilized a handful of oil companies from around the world to resume doing business with Venezuela in the hope of that Washington will not become tough again if Chavismo allows minimal democratic guarantees.
The agreements signed in Barbados oblige the government to admit all candidates for presidential elections. On the same Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron, who a year ago hosted a conclave called the “Peace Forum” in Paris with the heads of state of Colombia and Argentina, said that the European Union’s sanctions had recently been extended by six months, not a year , made since their application, should be gradually lifted if Venezuela complies with the commitments signed in Barbados. However, Maduro and his representatives in the negotiations strongly reiterated the disqualification of Machado, which he announced in the middle of this year, just days after he registered for the primaries, when he was already leading in the polls.
“Do not be fooled”
In these new “crucial hours” for Venezuela, the former head of the Spanish government, Felipe González, has warned against the ways of Chavismo and called on the international community not to be deceived. “A tyranny like the one in Venezuela cannot be measured by the parameters of a country with institutionality,” he said this Wednesday in an interview with the television channel NTN24. “Juan González (Joe Biden’s adviser for the region) and other speakers are trapped in the idea of an institutional functioning that does not exist in Venezuela. There is a dictatorship in Venezuela. Do not be fooled”.
González recalled Chavismo’s maneuver in 2015 when it lost parliament. Even before the new MPs were installed, he stripped the National Assembly of significant powers in record time to limit their actions. “The international interlocutors will see if they play this game and the whitewashers of the regime will certainly find themselves,” he commented. “The elections will not proceed as in a serious democracy, but with a proper opportunity to confront positions with observers who see the previous process to assess the conditions, we will hope that democracy can be revived in Venezuela next year. “.
The PSOE politician warns that, given the scenario of a presidential election in Venezuela in 2024, international observation must be carried out months in advance to assess the real conditions in which Venezuelans will try to resolve a seemingly chronic political crisis with votes solve. “The only legitimate authority to confront Maduro is for Venezuelan society to speak out,” emphasized González. “But Maduro is capable of carrying out a psychological exchange, maintaining the disqualification of María Corina Machado and allowing another to cause further confusion in the opposition between the different aspirations.” In his opinion, Chavismo needs to look in the mirror Argentina, where the ruling party had to acknowledge its defeat a few days ago and make way for Javier Milei. “María Corina Machado wants to win the elections, she does not want to weaken Chavismo or her party, which can compete on equal terms in the next elections.”
González, who has been an opposition ally for years, also sharply criticized his party colleague and former president José Rodríguez Zapatero, who, like him, is involved in the Venezuelan conflict but from the other side. First on a mission with Unasur, then as a free agent, he has become an important interlocutor for Maduro in the years when he was at his most diplomatically surrounded. “If someone wants to get something from the Maduro regime, the interlocutor will be Rodríguez Zapatero. That’s why I’m radically against what he’s doing. Of course, sometimes a political prisoner was released through his mediation, but the last one to be released (General Miguel Rodríguez Torres) is a great contradiction in terms: the founder of the secret service, Sebin, and creator of a prison called The Tomb.”
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