MIAMI. The former presidents of Costa Rica and Bolivia, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez and Jorge Tuto Quiroga agree that the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela refuses to accept the candidacy of María Corina Machado for the presidency, violating the agreements signed in Barbados, for fear of measuring themselves because they do not have the support of Venezuelans, who are subjected to a plan of constant impoverishment.
Both former presidents raised the issue of the Venezuelan elections on their accounts on the social network are a danger to their aspirations to remain in power.
Former President Rodríguez pointed out that the group that holds power in Venezuela clings to it for fear of losing its perks, privileges and immunities. “In addition to the most conspicuous holders of power, around them there is a whole group of other people who, for their personal benefit, commit crimes and arbitrariness in favor of their bosses, and who demand to be protected.”
Rodríguez mentioned that the participation of more than 2.5 million people in the opposition primaries, where María Corina Machado obtained more than 92% of the votes, demonstrates the democratic vocation of the Venezuelan people.
Call to the guarantor countries of Barbados
The Barbados agreement, signed by the Maduro government and the Unitary Platform, establishes the right of each political actor to select their candidate. However, the Supreme Court of Justice, controlled by the dictatorship, unconstitutionally disqualified Machado, because there is no firm judicial ruling that determines the law.
Machado was disqualified for a year in 2015 for attending as Panama’s “alternate ambassador” to a meeting of the Organization of American States (OAS), where she denounced human rights violations committed by the Chavista regime during protests that year in Venezuela.
The sanction was extended to 15 years last June, at the height of his campaign for the opposition primaries, in which he swept, obtaining 92% of the votes.
The former Costa Rican president called on the countries guarantors of the Barbados agreement, as well as all democrats in the world, “not to allow themselves to be manipulated by Maduro and to maintain their support for freedom and democracy in Venezuela.”
Rodríguez emphasized that without Machado’s participation in this year’s presidential elections, they would have no legitimacy. The former president warned that anyone who tries to usurp the opposition candidacy will be committing an act of betrayal against Venezuela and democracy.
Rodríguez concluded by stating that the only way to achieve change in Venezuela is through free and democratic elections with María Corina Machado as the opposition candidate.
Mature scared to death
For his part, the former president of Bolivia, Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga, denounced that the Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, “terrified and scared to death” at the candidacy of the opposition leader María Corina Machado, announces his intention to remain in power ” The good way or the bad way”.
Quiroga asserted that in free and transparent elections Machado would defeat Maduro by a wide margin, “4 to 1.” However, He warned that the dictator could only stay in power “the hard way,” with the help of his international allies, such as Gustavo Petro and Lula da Silva, and with the complicity of the president of the United States, Joe Biden.
Quiroga’s words add to the growing concerns about the situation in Venezuela, a few months before the presidential elections scheduled for 2024. The international community urges the Maduro regime to guarantee a free and fair electoral process; However, the dictator’s recent actions, such as the disqualification of several opposition candidates, raise doubts about his true commitment to democracy.
María Corina Machado, one of the main figures of the Venezuelan opposition, is the target of constant attacks by the Maduro regime, victim of a smear campaign
Maduro’s announcement generates strong rejection from the Venezuelan opposition and the international community. Quiroga called to “not allow Maduro to mock democracy” and to “support the Venezuelan people in their fight for freedom.”
Election date
It is important to remember that the government and the opposition signed an agreement last October in Barbados for the elections to be held in the second half of the year, with observation by the European Union.
Political analysts agree that Chavismo wants to hold elections as soon as possible, taking advantage of the disqualification of María Corina Machado. The dictator Maduro appears, for his part, as a natural candidate for re-election.
Those who call themselves ‘opponents’, but receive perks from the Maduro regime, who call them “scorpions,” talk about setting elections between July and October, while the regime says that they are even prepared to hold elections between March and October. May.
For its part, the Unitary Platform of Venezuela, a coalition of political parties opposed to the Maduro regime, ratifies its commitment to the Barbados Agreement and demands compliance with what was signed there for the holding of free and transparent elections in the second half of 2024. , preferably at the end.
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Source: Accounts of the social network X, formerly Twitter of former presidents Rodríguez and Quiroga, Frace 24, Bloomberg
