Disqualified opposition candidate Juan Guaidó smiles at supporters during a 2022 rally in Caracas. Photo: REUTERS/Gaby Oraa.
Venezuelan opposition parties continue to announce their candidates for the 2024 presidential elections amid an environment marked by division, questions of “legitimacy,” disqualified pre-candidates, and pleas to the US for more sanctions against the country’s government.
Complaints of exclusion, characterizing other aspirants as “scorpions,” accusations of treason, attributions of mental illness, etc. seem to be part of a campaign where the highly publicized “unity” is beginning to be exposed as a fabrication.
The so-called Unitary Platform for Venezuela (PUV), made up of the former members of the G4 platform; a Democratic Alliance made up of the opposition parties who have deputies in the National Assembly (AN); and the self-styled “independents” are the factions that, between accusations and insults, are trying to force their candidates into the fray.
Primaries characterized by exclusion
The members of the PUV, in their “efforts for unity,” decided to initiate a process of primary elections to select a “single candidate” for the opposition.
Arrangements for these primaries, scheduled for October 22, 2023, are being made by a National Commission on Primaries that was created after negotiations between the opposition parties Primero Justicia (PJ), Voluntad Popular (VP), Un Nuevo Tiempo (UNT) and a faction of former members of Acción Democrática (AD) party led by Henry Ramos Allup who call themselves the “real” representatives of AD.
The commission of 10 members (five principal members and five substitutes) is chaired by Jesús María Casal, dean of the Faculty of Law of the Andrés Bello Catholic University and former president of the Venezuelan Association of Constitutional Law, while María Carolina Uzcátegui serves as vice president. They are accompanied by Corina Yonis, president of the Venezuelan Philosophy Society; Ismael Pérez Vigil, former president of the industry platform CONINDUSTRIA; and Carmen Martínez de Grijalba, member of the Broad Front of Women.
This idea, which originated at the end of 2022 and was offered as an “effort” to unify the various factions of the Venezuelan opposition in order to present a single candidate in the 2024 presidential elections, ended up being another problematic initiative for the already divided opposition.
“We condemn the exclusionary, sectarian, and defeatist attitude with which this process is intended to be carried out,” stated the general secretary of Primero Venezuela, AN Deputy José Brito, adding that the commission neglected to call upon his party to participate in the regional boards for the process.
Cabe destacar que en el caso de Primero Venezuela, nuestro partido, nos NEGARON el derecho a participar.
Nosotros acudimos a la @cnprimariave, sostuvimos reunión cordial y formal, pero nunca fuimos considerados para integrar las Juntas Regionales.
CC @usembassyve https://t.co/LU9uQRkw8a
— José Brito (@JoseBritoVe) February 23, 2023
A complaint similar to Brito’s came from the general secretary of COPEI, Juan Carlos Alvarado, who, after announcing that his party would not participate in these primaries, stressed that “the word unity has been used as a mechanism of blackmail to somehow achieve the political objectives” of a minority sector of the opposition.
These decrees were followed by those of Bernabé Gutiérrez, secretary general of the Acción Democrática party, who emphasized that “we do not participate or lend ourselves to legitimizing the criminal actions of a quartet that has used an ‘interim government’ to embezzle Venezuelan assets abroad.”
These three parties, in addition to El Cambio led by Javier Bertucci, are currently the ones with the largest presence in the AN. Moreover, since 2018, these parties have promoted the democratic mechanism of voting, a position that was questioned by the PUV. In its commitment to its plan to overthrow the Venezuelan government and replace it with the “interim government,” the PUV branded the former as “scorpions.” Today, the PUV is once again excluding those parties from the election process under the same premise.
Yes, but no
In addition to this panorama of exclusion marked by sectarianism within the G4, there is the distrust sown by pre-candidates in the process.
This is illustrated by the case of María Corina Machado of Vente Venezuela, who has showed her willingness to participate in this electoral process but has questioned the credibility of the primary commission formed by the leadership of the PUV, which she has described as an “accomplice of the [Maduro] regime.”
Machado has criticized some decisions of the commission and has threatened to withdraw from the election process if her demands are not met. The demands include allowing Venezuelans residing abroad to vote in the primaries, rejecting the technical support of the Venezuelan National Electoral Council (CNE), and excluding the parties of the “scorpions.”
“If they hold some sham primaries where the people are unable to participate, there is no point in supporting that process,” she said, causing some analysts to predict the imminence of her withdrawal from the primaries given the unfeasibility of complying with all her demands. According to surveys conducted by opposition sectors, she appears among the favorites to win the candidacy.
Another candidate joining the process with conditions is the leader of the Causa R party, Andrés Velásquez, who, like Machado, is opposed to accepting technical support from the CNE.
“We will not allow the CNE, which is the electoral arm of the regime, to intervene in the primary election of the presidential candidate of democratic factors, which is an internal process,” he expressed. This position seems a sine qua non condition for the extremists, who appear to be trying to choose between abstention and conditional voting.
Alongside this, Leopoldo López, mentor of Juan Guaidó, has branded the promoters of the primary process as “collaborators of the regime,” and continues to insist that the “exit from the dictatorship” will be achieved only by force, “as reflected in his last appearance before the United States Congress where he asked the White House for more sanctions against Venezuela.
“There is no way to win the fight for democracy and freedom if the United States does not lead it,” Leopoldo López said, expressing open contempt for the electoral primaries promoted in Venezuela by his former opposition comrades. López called upon everyone in the opposition to define “if one is a mollusk or a shellfish,” that is, whether one supports the process or not.
Legal hurdles
Another challenge during the process involves the candidates who have been disqualified from holding positions in the public administration after being accused of corruption during their elected terms.
Henrique Capriles Radonski of PJ and Juan Guaidó of VP are two of the pre-candidates who have been subjected to an express prohibition of the Comptroller General of the Republic, which implies that neither can register his candidacy with the CNE to participate in the presidential election.
Capriles was disqualified in 2017 for a period of 15 years for involvement in crimes such as failing to present the local budget to the State Legislative Council, signing international agreements without authorization, and signing contracts by the Miranda state government with companies while failing to comply with the rules. These charges date back to the time he was the governor of that state.
Guaidó, in addition to having proclaimed himself “interim president” of the country and usurping administrative functions over assets of the Venezuelan state abroad, was disqualified for a period of 15 years due to his refusal to submit the Affidavit of Assets, which is mandatory for all public officials, while he was the president of the AN.
All of this highlights that the opposition primaries, instead of promoting unity among various sectors of the opposition, has become an additional site proving the contention and disunity that characterize the Venezuelan opposition. Accusations of being “scorpions,” “accomplices of the regime,” and “sectarians” continue to deepen the opposition’s crisis. Everything indicates that the primaries will go down in history as another failure of the Venezuelan right wing in its attempt to return to power.
(Últimas Noticias) by Jesús Inojosa
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/SC/KZ
