Primero Justicia young politician Roberto Patino during an electoral activity in Caracas. Photo courtesy of Twitter.
On Saturday, September 11, Roberto Patiño, candidate for mayor of Caracas for the opposition Unitary Platform, informed that he is not going to run, and has given Tomás Guanipa his position in the electoral race in the regional elections scheduled for November 21. Patiño informed this through a series of tweets on his Twitter account, @RobertoPatino.
Patiño added that he respects the decision of the leadership in this regard, and stressed that he will support whatever the leadership decides in a possible winning scenario.
La Unidad decidió por consenso de los partidos que el candidato es @TomasGuanipa. No hay aspiración particular que esté por encima del cambio y la unidad es una condición necesaria para lograrlo. Respeto la decisión y trabajaremos por el triunfo.
— Roberto Patiño (@RobertoPatino) September 11, 2021
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Roberto Patiño, a young member of Primero Justicia party, has withdrawn his candidacy for the mayorship of Libertador municipality of Caracas. He was candidate for the opposition platform Unidad, formed by extreme right political parties belonging to the G4. The leadership of the Unitary Platform decided by consensus that in place of Patiño, the candidate would be Tomás Guanipa.
In a thread of several tweets, Patiño stated, “I reaffirm my commitment to change the way of doing politics. Unity and strength to achieve change must be built with the people on the streets. Politics must be dignified. The hope is to show that we are different from what we face.”
Unity?
For its part, the Primero Justicia party, which belongs to the G4, has tweeted its support for Guanipa for the upcoming elections. They are not even in the final lap, and are already changing the message to their followers.
Acompañado de la @unidadvenezuela y con mucha fuerza hoy le decimos a #Caracas y a toda Venezuela que vamos a luchar, que aquí nadie se rinde, y que vamos a lograr la libertad #CaracasConGuanipa pic.twitter.com/PFlQvPCc3o
— Primero Justicia (@Pr1meroJusticia) September 11, 2021
In a statement, the Unitary Platform stressed that the November 21 regional elections will be a useful battlefield to strengthen the citizenry and “to promote solutions to the serious crisis in the country.”
“We will organize and mobilize,” stressed the Unitary Platform in its official statement. “We emphasize that this decision complements the efforts being made in Mexico and points to a peaceful and negotiated solution.”
But the reality seems to be far removed from the official statements or tweets. On Saturday morning itself, Guanipa started trending in Venezuelan Twitter, although not for positive comments from the followers of the right-wing politician. On the contrary, most of the Twitter users who commented on the matter criticized the decision of the G4 to impose from above who was going to be the candidate, not taking into consideration the allegedly good job that Patiño had been doing in the streets of Caracas.
According to many analysts, this is a new evidence of the disconnection between the G4 leadership and their base of supporters, and also not a very positive sign for the opposition to achieve good results in the upcoming elections.
Featured image: Primero Justicia politician Roberto Patiño in an electoral rally in Caracas. Photo: Twitter
(RedRadioVE) by Victoria Torres, with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/SC
