2023-06-30 16:26:55
The Venezuelan opposition leader, María Corina Machado, described the political disqualification against her as “useless” and assured that the one who enables it is the people of Venezuela.
The opposition leader, María Corina Machado, who according to an official letter from the Comptroller General of the Republic (CGR) released on Friday is disabled to hold public office for 15 years, described the measure as “useless”
Machado, who according to the most recent polls leads the intention to vote in the presidential primary in which the opposition hopes to define the candidate that will be measured against the government in the 2024 presidential elections, assured that the disqualification only shows that the “regime” is “defeated”.
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“A useless disqualification that only shows that the regime knows that it is already defeated. Now we will vote with more force, more rebellion and more desire in the primaries. Here who enables it is the people of Venezuela. Until the end is until the end ”, Machado reacted from the state of Barinas, some 500 kilometers southwest of Caracas, where he is on tour.
A USELESS “disqualification” that only shows that the regime knows that it is ALREADY DEFEATED. Now we will vote with more force, more rebellion and more desire in the Primaries. Here who ENABLES is the people of Venezuela. Until the end is UNTIL THE END! pic.twitter.com/wRof639noG
— Maria Corina Machado (@MariaCorinaYA) June 30, 2023
“We knew this last outburst was coming, but if they thought that this farce of disqualification was going to discourage participation in the primaries, they should prepare themselves (…) if someone had doubts that the primary could not be useful, the primary will enable the next president of Venezuela,” he exclaimed during a political rally on Friday morning.
Who are the opposition candidates of the presidential primary in Venezuela?
The official letter from the CGR affirms that a patrimonial investigation continued, finding that Machado “is disqualified from holding any public office for a period of 15 years, in accordance with the provisions of article 105 of the Organic Law of the Comptroller General of the Republic and the National Fiscal Control System and numeral 2 of article 44 of the Anti-Corruption Law”.
The Democratic Unitary Platform, a coalition that brings together the majority of the opposition parties, as well as the pre-presidential candidates, rejected the action, which they described as “unconstitutional and a clear violation of the political rights of Venezuelans.”
In this sense, they ratified their commitment to the construction of unity through the primary election.
Also read They ask to clarify if candidate María Corina Machado is disabled for elections
The information was released after José Brito, a member of the National Assembly Comptrollership Commission with an official majority and whom the opposition considers an ally of Chavismo, requested to know the status of Machado’s disqualification from performing functions on Monday.
Brito is a parliamentarian who was expelled from the Primero Justicia (PJ) party at the end of 2019, after being accused of having taken steps from the AN Comptrollership Commission to prevent further investigations against businessmen accused of corruption linked to Chavismo, including Colombian businessman Alex Saab, prosecuted in the United States for conspiracy to launder money and whom the Venezuelan government considers a diplomat.
According to the official letter of the CGR, Machado incurred in “acts, facts, omissions and administrative irregularities”, including “errors” and “omissions” in the affidavits of assets evaluated in the framework of the asset audit.
In addition, the official letter indicates that the political leader has requested a “blockade” of Venezuela by the international community and “has been a participant” in a “corruption plot” that, according to her, was orchestrated by Juan Guaidó, who until the beginning of this year he was considered by dozens of countries as interim president of Venezuela.
In 2015, Machado was banned from holding public office for a year, but the measure ended in July 2016.
Also read Venezuela: challenges and scenarios of the opposition’s self-managed presidential primary
The National Primary Commission (CNdP) did not prevent disqualified political leaders from registering to participate in the process and has clarified that, in the event that one of the disqualified candidates succeeds, it will be up to the parties to define the “mechanism to be used”, which could imply a negotiation process resulting from pressure in the event that the primary election is successful.
Henrique Capriles, one of the pre-presidential candidates, in 2017 was disqualified for 15 years.
Another candidate in this situation is Freddy Superlano, a politician who won the governorship of the Barinas state in the 2021 regional elections, but who, after a court ruling that argued that Superlano was disqualified, had to be repeated. Roberto Picón, one of the rectors of the National Electoral Council (CNE) said at that time that the disqualification “was unknown” by the body.
The opposition and different organizations, including Acceso a la Justicia, a civil association dedicated to monitoring the administration of justice and the rule of law in the country, have denounced that the disqualifications are “arbitrary” and have been used by the government to ” take out of the game” opponents or dissident Chavistas who aspire to a position of popular election.
According to the organization, only between 2022 and 2015 the CGR, which has maintained opacity on the matter, disqualified 1,401 current and former public officials.
It is clear that no administrative authority should take away political rights from any citizen. https://t.co/XmKWo34GZv
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) June 30, 2023
From Colombia, President Gustavo Petro reacted on Friday morning, through his Twitter account, stating that “no administrative authority should take away political rights from any citizen.”
The president’s reaction came after a journalist from BluRadio He will ask the president through social networks about his position on the matter.
To the Nicaraguan
César Pérez Vivas, former governor of the state of Táchira, on the border with Colombia and candidate for the presidential primary of the Venezuelan opposition, denounced on Thursday that the government of President Nicolás Maduro intends to copy the methods used by the Nicaraguan president, Daniel Ortega, to “perpetuate itself in the power”.
He recalled that, in 2021, before the presidential elections in that country, opposition presidential candidates were detained.
“All the candidates that the democratic society of that country presented went to jail and a process is underway here to prevent Venezuelan citizens from choosing the alternative candidate, the unity candidate and other processes through which they seek to progressively eliminate the candidates of the political scene using the instrument of disqualifications”, he warned.
Also read Would the consensus in Venezuela succeed if the opposition primary collapses in October?
In addition, he said that the government “made the Electoral Power board resign” with the purpose that the new National Electoral Council (CNE), which should be chosen soon by the Electoral Nominations Committee created by the National Assembly with an official majority, promote abstention in the 2024 presidential elections.
Various political consultants consulted in recent days by the VOA They have warned that, as has happened in the past, Chavismo could use the disqualifications as a tool to “neutralize” the primary and lead the opposition to choose a candidate by consensus.
Luis Peche Arteaga, a political consultant at the Camilo José Cela University and an internationalist at the Central University of Venezuela (UCV), stresses that opposition demobilization is “fundamental” for Chavismo and considers that the opposition leadership and citizens should be aware that in 2024 it will not be possible to choose “a face and a name, but a cause”.
“The democratic transition, embodied in any person with the conviction and courage to stand up to Chavismo,” he reacted on Twitter to the announcement about Machado’s disqualification.
“After the primary, whatever the result, the candidates and parties must be ready to propose to the country a plan for 2024, contemplating all scenarios. Let’s remember that in 2021 the CNE allowed Freddy Superlano to register, campaign and win the election so that it would later disqualify him, ”he insisted.
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