Spanish.- Only 48 hours remain until the end of the candidate substitution period affecting the voting instruments, coinciding with the expiration of licenses granted by the United States to the Venezuelan regime as part of the temporary sanctions relief agreed upon in Barbados, in exchange for the holding of free presidential elections with the participation of “all candidates.” This latter condition was not met by the dictatorship. Hence, Washington decided to terminate the leniency. As announced in late January, a State Department spokesperson confirmed this Monday that “in the absence of progress by Maduro and his representatives in terms of implementing the provisions of the roadmap, the United States will not renew the license when it expires on April 18, 2024,” thus keeping the regime sanctioned and isolated.
Recent meetings in Mexico yielded no results for Nicolás Maduro, who sought to once again deceive the White House with false promises that he later breaks under the guise of some alleged conspiracy or assassination attempt. This week is crucial. In addition to the expiration of licenses granted by the US on Thursday, the deadline for candidate substitutions with changes in name and face on the electronic ballot is on Saturday.
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The Venezuelan dictatorship sought to take advantage of the United States’ perceived “time to correct,” as stated a couple of weeks ago by the Under Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Brian Nichols. In an attempt to persuade Washington to reconsider the measure announced in late January to keep Maduro’s regime sanctioned, a delegation from the Venezuelan tyranny met last week in Mexico with high-ranking representatives of the Biden administration, led by Deputy Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Daniel Erikson, which was officially acknowledged by both parties.
However, today’s announcement from the State Department indicates that no agreement was reached. In fact, the Chavista regime – with total audacity – accused the US of not fulfilling its part and demanded the complete lifting of sanctions without offering anything in return, as it not only maintained the unconstitutional disqualification of the indisputable winner of the opposition primaries, María Corina Machado but also blocked, without providing any legal argument, the nomination of Machado’s chosen representative in the elections, the philosopher Corina Yoris.
The thorny electoral path of the opposition
The Venezuelan opposition does not yet consider anything lost. In the last hours, it emerged that María Corina Machado had requested a meeting with Manuel Rosales, the governor of Zulia state registered as a presidential candidate with the card of his party Un Nuevo Tiempo (UNT), breaking the unity with the Unitary Platform with this nomination. However, Machado, with the support of the opposition coalition, would be seeking an agreement to continue on the electoral path “until the end” – as her campaign slogan has been – with a candidate who represents her and to whom she can transfer the enormous popular support she has, according to all polls.
It is not an easy task. Without offering any kind of legal argument, the National Electoral Council (CNE), controlled from Miraflores, blocked the nomination of Corina Yoris, who was chosen by Machado to represent her in the elections on July 28th. Instead, on the card of the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD), former diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia was registered as a “placeholder” or “caretaker” candidate to have room for maneuver. But until Saturday, there is time to change his name and face on the ballot; otherwise, he will continue to appear as a candidate even if he is replaced up to 10 days before the election, as stipulated in the electoral regulations. That’s why this week is decisive.
The meeting between María Corina Machado and Manuel Rosales has not yet taken place. Omar Barboza, secretary-general of the Unitary Platform, admitted in statements to NTN24 that from the opposition coalition “efforts have been made to make it happen.” According to reports, Rosales intends to meet alone with Machado, while she requests that the meeting be broader and include the Unitary Platform.
Maduro’s desperate move forward
What could come out of this meeting? On the one hand, it is sought for Rosales to step aside in favor of the candidate supported by Machado and, therefore, able to mobilize his voters. In fact, the governor of Zulia said at an event in Maracaibo that he is willing to resign if the unity manages to register another candidate. But right there lies the major obstacle. Nicolás Maduro, with total audacity, reportedly said that he will not accept any candidate representing the winner of the primaries, as Corina Yoris told CNN.
Maduro’s unusual demand goes even further. It’s not just about preventing a candidate backed by María Corina from participating in the elections. It’s about imposing Rosales as his comfortable rival. That’s why Diosdado Cabello, the number two in Chavismo, suggested that only candidates who have previously been admitted by the CNE will be allowed to be substituted. With this, pressure would be exerted from Miraflores in the opposite direction. What the regime intends is for the Unitary Platform to support Manuel Rosales’ candidacy and for him to appear on the MUD card to try to convince the international community that it fulfilled its part of the agreement signed in Barbados, but the United States has made it clear that they are not buying that story.