The recent history of Venezuela is populated with bitter ironies and repetitions. The presidential elections of July 28, 2024 They are still part of an irreconcilable division: a good part of the country does not believe that Nicolás Maduro was imposed on the former Diplomatic Edmundo González Urrutia In that contest. Since then, the “labor president”, as he likes to be called, governs in the midst of apathy and the fear of retaliation of many Venezuelans. Those sensations are the predominant in the country that this Sunday, 364 days after those controversial electionsreturn to the polls, this time to settle the management of 335 mayors and the municipal councilss. The campaign barely lasted two weeks, a sign of social fatigue. Madurismo does not doubt the victory. The opposition no longer has a common goal: the sector of María Corina Machado He called citizens to stay in their homes because it is a way to continue remembering the “fraud” of 2024. Other leaders and forces decided to participate in the convinced elections that dropout is a road without return that has already been tested.
Nothing has changed from the regional elections last May 25 in which the Government sang its statistical victory (it obtained 23 of the 24 state governments at stake) but at the same time had a loud political stroke because Almost 58% of citizens in conditions of suffering did not do so. “You vote freely, but vote,” Maduro asked on the eve. Absenteeism disturbs him.
Maduro has tried to capitalize on the perplexity of Venezuelans when his family or migrants friends went to the maximum Salvadoran security prison. He talked about disappearances and a constant denial of rights. The Criminal Forum reminded him that a total of 853 people are arrested for political reasons in Venezuela despite the recent release of 66 dissidents.
Oppositer crossroads
Real support to the president on the street does not exceed 25%according to different polls. However, their adversaries have never been able to capitalize on that objective weakness or negotiate with the Miraflores Palace in conditions that are not completely unfavorable. For worse, they have dispersed and lack a common road map. The current mayor of the wealthy Chacao, in eastern Caracas, the opponent Gustavo Duque, defended his participation in these elections, against the opinion of Machado and Urrutia. “That everyone knows that we are playing the future of the most emblematic municipality in Venezuela, the future of the most opponent of Venezuela,” he recalled when closing his campaign.
“We leave them alone on May 25, (…) this July 27, we leave them again,” He asked for his machado. The right -wing leader, in complete tune with the administration of Donald Trump, is convinced that Venezuelans will follow that call. “We have the strength today, and this is not going back, it doesn’t have it. We are going to get Maduro.” Political analysts cited by the portal ´Effect Cocuyo` warn, however, that the present situation of Venezuela is the political disconnection. The opposition, said Piero Trepiccione, must “interpret” that feeling. Machado’s repeated speech about an imminent almost providential event that evicted Maduro from power has lost enthusiastic receptors. The political consultant Luis Toty Medina maintains in this regard that this opposition sector, the most uncompromising, has not handled the relationship between expectations and results well, and that pushes despair. “It is a certain fact that if leaderships do not conform to the needs of the peopleThey run the risk of disappearing. ”
The bid with the USA
The elections have a backdrop that raises greater attention than the main scene. Days ago 252 Venezuelans were exchanged in a maximum security prison in El Salvador by 10 citizens of the United States who were under arrest. Caracas also released numerous political prisoners. The episode has numerous edges and political derivations. Last Thursday, Maduro confirmed that the American oil company Chevron received a license to continue operating in that country, the fruit not only of that exchange but of the rhythm that the deportations of Venezuelan migrants have been having. Trump had ordered the multinational to suspend crude oil pumping operations last May. The permit had been granted by its predecessor, Joe Biden, when Washington tried to tertiary between the Miraflores Palace and the opposition to guarantee transparent presidential elections, which did not end up happening. Chevron’s role in the recovery of an economy as vaulted as the Venezuelan was crucial. The company, he said, “is 102 years in Venezuela and I want you to be 100 years old (more) and work without problems.” Incidentally, Maduro invited US investors to accept his hand laid. “Everyone who wants to work with serious people, people in word, based on legality, come to Venezuela. Venezuela is the paradise of investments for oil, gas, petrochemistry, hydrocarbons. “
The complexity of underground ties between Maduro and Trumpism was revealed in the recent repatriation of the American Venezuelan origin Dahud Hanid Ortiz, author in 2016 of a triple murder in Madrid. Ortiz was one of the ten Americans released days ago. Although Trump had promised to expel the “foreign criminals” of his country, he made a striking exception in this case.
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