Venezuela: No “elections without me,” says unqualified opposition candidate

The Venezuelan opposition candidate for the 2024 presidential elections, Maria Corina Machado, said to her supporters on Monday, “No elections without me,” while the judicial system accused of submitting to the orders of those in power confirmed, on January 26, its incompetence. .

• Read also: Venezuela: Call to cancel the disqualification of the main competitor

“President Nicolas Maduro will not choose the people's candidate, because the people have already chosen their candidate, this period,” Machado said, amid applause from her supporters.

Machado, 56, a notoriously combative liberal, won Venezuela's opposition primary in October, winning more than 2 million votes and 92% of the vote.

Many observers believe that the candidate is able to rally the entire opposition behind her, which is usually very divided.

He said: “We will prevail (…) I received the mandate of nearly 3 million Venezuelans who exercised their popular sovereignty on October 22. I represent this popular sovereignty. She added: “There cannot be elections without me and without the millions of Venezuelans who voted.”

The opposition candidate added: “We have a clear and unambiguous mandate, and we will defeat Nicolas Maduro in this year’s presidential elections,” the date of which has not yet been set.

Ms. Machado had objected to the decision to disqualify her on charges of “treason” in particular because of her support for US sanctions against the Maduro government.

The possibility of appealing the decision before the Supreme Court of Barbados was obtained thanks to pressure from the United States, as part of a negotiation process between the government and the opposition, mediated by Norway.

“They did not keep their word”

An agreement signed in Barbados in October 2023 stipulates the presence of international observers and guarantees that voting will take place in the second half of the year.

Following this agreement, the United States eased the embargo on Venezuelan oil, gas, and gold. But after Machado's appeal was rejected, Washington said it was considering new sanctions.

“They once again violated what was agreed upon in the (negotiation) process, they did not keep their word (…) they violated the procedures, they invented the documents,” Ms. Machado said.

For their part, the authorities believe that justice ruled: “There was a voluntary mechanism: whoever wanted to appeal, appealed and also committed to respecting the result. Jorge Rodriguez, Speaker of Parliament and head of the authority’s delegation to the negotiations, said on Monday: “It has become a thing of the past.”

He stressed that “there is nothing more that can be said,” adding that the opposition shows “deep arrogance” in its belief that the “title” is higher than the “constitution.”

On Saturday, the opposition delegation to the negotiations demanded the cancellation of the decision and alerted the countries participating in the negotiations to Norway, France, Colombia and Brazil.

In a statement issued on Monday morning, the EU said it was “deeply concerned” by the Supreme Court’s decision: “Decisions aimed at preventing members of the opposition from exercising their fundamental political rights can only harm democracy and the rule of law.

Constitutional lawyer Juan Manuel Ravalli believes that Ms. Machado can “take action against the decision or demand the invalidation of the administrative law.”

“But this is a political problem, not a legal problem,” he told AFP. “If there is no independent and independent judiciary (…) you will never get a positive response.”

The dialogue between the government and the opposition began in August 2021 and was blocked twice before the agreement was signed in Barbados. Neither party has expressed any intention to leave the table at this time.