There are politicians who appear on the scene and become protagonists from one day to the next. The examples have increased in recent years: Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro, Nayib Bukele, Javier Milei and Rodolfo Hernández. They are characters who suddenly appear and manage to connect with a society that is fed up and discredited and that clings to them as if they were the last chance of their lives. Something similar is happening in Venezuela with María Corina Machado, the undisputed leader of the polls a month before the opposition primaries, only she is neither an outsider nor a newcomer. He does not belong to this group of leaders of the disruptive extreme right, nor does he represent charismatic populism. Machado has been in politics for two decades and sticks to his beliefs. Chávez, considered a representative of the radical wing of the opposition, dubbed her “the handsome bourgeoisie” at the time, and some call her the “iron lady.” Now that her political moment has arrived, many are wondering: What is on María Corina’s mind?
Machado defines herself – and her party, Vente Venezuela – as “liberal” – or neoliberal, depending on how you look at it – politically, economically and programmatically. His political vision revolves around reducing government as a provider of public policy, introducing new opportunities for entrepreneurship, and promoting the free market to create wealth and jobs. His vision of government is Manchesterist and not much different from what Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan or, in Latin America, Sebastián Piñera might have had. She looks at herself in these mirrors. “Margaret Thatcher had the courage throughout her life to defend her values against everything that opposed her,” she tweeted in 2013, perhaps in reference to herself, who still had a decade of neglect from Chavismo and the opposition ahead of her . before success caresses.
Machado with George Bush, President of the United States, in 2005. Machado led an organization called Súmate that was interested in political rights.CHARLES DHARAPAK (AP)
The 55-year-old industrial engineer, divorced mother of three, who grew up far from the country and herself, had never gotten along with a Venezuela further to the left of her postulates. Her character found support in the upper class, to which her family has always belonged, and in the diaspora, but in recent months she has broken through her own glass ceiling and become the closest thing to a people’s princess. Thousands of people respond every day to his presence in every part of the country, from the richest to the poor, even in the electoral districts of Chavismo. The disillusionment with the government and an opposition that unsettles a society that suffers every day from the crisis has emboldened this woman with clear ideas who seeks a total turnaround in the country’s economy while connecting with the pain so many broken families. She is also a mother who misses her children.
Machado has always avoided labels. “If it is a left-wing idea that eradicating poverty is a task for the entire society, then I am a left-wing one. “If belief in personal freedom, in investment, in productivity is a right-wing issue, then I am right-wing,” he said in 2012. The politician takes a tolerant and flexible stance on issues such as abortion, on which she asks about one in the country To open debate about the decriminalization of rape, the use of medical marijuana or gay marriage. Although she is a woman who presents herself as a believer, she rules out the possibility that her faith will creep into her political actions.
The presidential candidate has proposed privatizing the public company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), a taboo for local politics, and returning to their owners all the companies expropriated by Chavismo, including Siderúrgica Venezolana, which was his (deceased) father’s company this year). President of the Executive Committee. Machado wants to deregulate controls, promises to punish corruption and push for a general amnesty for political prisoners, promote external growth and reestablish contact with multilateral organizations.
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María Corina Machado at a political event in Maracay (Aragua state) on September 28th. MIGUEL GUTIERREZ (EFE)
With the influence of economists such as Ludwig Von Mises or Milton Friedman, he has an interpretation of local politics to the right of the traditional parties of Venezuelan democracy before Chavismo. A more American than European vision of the distribution of social resources to create wealth and a deeply anti-communist discourse. Instead of the traditional social democratic support state of the 20th century, Machado proposes the reduction of welfare and the construction of a society without crutches in order to end the burden of the oil state in the lives of the population, thereby taking up an idea very present Venezuelan thinkers on which he relies often refers, such as the writer Arturo Uslar Pietri and the liberal intellectual Carlos Rangel.
Her attacks on Chavismo have been her personal trademark since the time of Chávez, and her hostility from left and right, including the opposition, has made her a lone politician now proclaiming her intention to unite a divided country. She is sure that Chavista bases and opponents of all spectrums are heading towards the primaries alongside her today, surrendering to a figure who is used to saying no to everything. Machado always refused to sit at the negotiating table with the government and did not take part in numerous electoral processes, believing that his presence was a way to legitimize Chavismo.
She was critical of the interim government of Juan Guaidó, which sought to end Madurismo through confrontation and failed in this attempt, and sharply of the moderate part of the opposition, which she accused of playing into the regime’s hands. For years she advocated a violent end to Chavismo with the help of the United States, but this never came to fruition. Today he knows that it was nothing more than a fantasy.
Machado approaches the elections with determination, convinced that Chavismo has done her a favor by declaring her disqualification – a new ploy without any legal basis that will reinstate her candidacy inside and outside the country for the primaries on October 22nd got started. They shout to María Corina on the street: “I enable you with my voice!”
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