Venezuela's Comptroller General Office Ratifies María Corina Machado's Electoral Disqualification (+ Gustavo Petro)

Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—Venezuelan opposition deputy of the National Assembly (AN) José Brito, member of the Comptroller Commission of the Parliament, ratified the disqualification of opposition politician María Corina Machado from holding public office until 2030.

María Corina Machado, leader of the far-right party Vente Venezuela, was disqualified from holding public office in July 2015 for not reporting money she had received while she was a deputy of the National Assembly, an accusation that she denies. Machado has not presented evidence that she followed the legal defense procedures of the Anti-Corruption Law and the General Comptroller Office Law.

#ÚLTIMAHORA | Contraloría General de la República responde la solicitud del diputado José Brito e informa que María Corina Machado está inhabilitada desde el 2015 y que dicha inhabilitación es por 15 años. pic.twitter.com/vUf8k1zjqi
— REDRADIOVE (@RedRadioVe) June 30, 2023

In March 2014, Machado was removed from her position as National Assembly deputy for having accepted a position as “alternate ambassador” of Panama to the Organization of American States (OAS). She had done that in order to call upon the OAS to apply the Inter-American Charter against Venezuela, a maneuver promoted by the White House to destabilize the government of President Nicolás Maduro. Venezuelan law prevents a deputy from holding another public post even in incidental circumstances.

On Friday, June 30, Deputy José Brito explained that the information about Machado’s disqualification was provided to him by the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic (CGR), in response to the request he had made June 26, asking for information on the political status of several opposition pre-candidates who aspire to run in the opposition’s primary elections.

#ÚLTIMAHORA | Contraloría General de la República responde la solicitud del diputado José Brito e informa que María Corina Machado está inhabilitada desde el 2015 y que dicha inhabilitación es por 15 años. pic.twitter.com/neZlqejyFV
— REDRADIOVE (@RedRadioVe) June 30, 2023

“I have the information that citizen María Corina Machado Parisca… was disqualified from holding any public office through Resolution 01-00-000398 dated July 13, 2015,” Brito read from an official statement, in which he cited Section 2 of Article 44 of the current Law Against Corruption, noting that it remains in force.

The law establishes a minimum penalty of 12 months and a maximum of 15 years. The last paragraph of Article 44 of the law states that in the cases of maximum penalty, the decision must be taken by a judge, provided the cases are within the scope of Sections 4 and 5 of the same article of the law.

Of the 14 opposition pre-candidates who have officially registered to participate in the opposition’s primary elections, three were disqualified in the past by the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic: Henrique Capriles Radonski of Justice First party, Freddy Superlano of Popular Will party, and María Corina Machado of Vente Venezuela.

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Many of these politicians, despite their political disqualification, have launched their primary campaigns in a two-way strategy: first, to get rid of disqualifications and legal procedures against them because of criminal or conspiratorial crimes via the Mexico Talks promoted by the US government; and secondly, to push for polarization and violence in Venezuela in an attempt to catapult their own presidential bids or, failing that, to promote destabilization and insurrection in the country.

The second option is less probable in Venezuela’s current political environment, because many Venezuelans who had supported the opposition in the past have lost trust in the opposition leadership, and overall are less interested in politics as the majority are focused on surviving the economic crisis caused by the US and European blockade, a blockade that had been called for and cheered on by the same opposition politicians who now want the people’s vote.

Machado responds
In a message posted on her Twitter account, Machado strongly criticized Brito’s announcement and said that the disqualification was “useless.” “The disqualification only shows that the regime knows that it is already defeated,” she wrote on Twitter. “Now we will vote in the primaries with greater strength, greater rebelliousness, and greater desire. The people of Venezuela is the one to disqualify a candidate. Until the end means until the end.”

Una INÚTIL “inhabilitación” que sólo demuestra que el régimen sabe que YA está DERROTADO.
Ahora votaremos con más fuerza, más rebeldía y más ganas en las Primarias.
Aquí quién HABILITA es el pueblo de Venezuela.
Hasta el final es HASTA EL FINAL! pic.twitter.com/wRof639noG
— María Corina Machado (@MariaCorinaYA) June 30, 2023

The CGR’s decision was condemned by former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski, who was also disqualified from holding public office in 2017. “We categorically reject this new example of the anti-democratic course of Maduro and his regime,” she wrote on a Twitter post. “They will not succeed in taking away the hope of Venezuelans for a change to have a better country!”

Disqualifications are one of the issues that the opposition wants to discuss with the government at the Mexico Talks. However, the negotiations remain stalled since November 2022 because the US government has not complied with releasing $3.2 billion from the Venezuelan state’s international accounts that have been unilaterally frozen since 2019 due to US sanctions.

PSUV: Opposition Primaries Will Be a Disaster

Disqualifications do not prevent the opposition candidates from participating in the primaries, but they would face legal hurdles if they try to register as candidates with the National Electoral Council (CNE) for the 2024 presidential race.

Colombian President Petro comments on the disqualification issue
Colombian President Gustavo Petro, in his first openly confrontational statement regarding Venezuela as head of state of the neighboring country, stated in a Twitter post that no administrative body should revoke political rights of any citizen.

Es claro que ninguna autoridad administrativa debe quitar derechos políticos a ningún ciudadano(a). https://t.co/XmKWo34GZv
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) June 30, 2023

“It is clear that no administrative authority should take away political rights from any citizen,” Petro wrote in reference to Machado’s disqualification. This comment is in line with Petro’s long standing principle about respect for political rights, a position he has been holding since he was mayor of Bogota.

The Colombian president seems to have made this comment based on his own personal experience and the Colombian political scene, without taking into account the extremely complex political environment in Venezuela where opposition politicians have been openly involved in coup attempts and destabilizations, have called for foreign invasion, sanctions, and blockades, have been implicated in assassination attempts and various forms of criminal behavior, while creating the narrative of being “victims” of the “Maduro regime.”

Orinoco Tribune Special by staff

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