“They steal all the claims against electoral fraud and irregularities. They have kidnapped the National Electoral Council. They disqualify or take our leaders to prison. We have no other option but to ‘salida‘. Of the chavismo and of Nicolas Maduro“. With this allusion to the ‘exit’, then an ambiguous term, he received Maria Corina Machado in 2013 to a group of foreign journalists – among them, this correspondent – at the more than abundant cocktail party offered in a beautiful Caracas residence by the director of the newspaper ‘El Nacional’, Miguel Otero. It was election eve, when dry law theoretically applies in Venezuela. The next day the first presidential elections were held with Nicolas Maduro as a candidate. Hugo Chávez had died the previous month. The candidate of the opposition Unity Roundtable (MUD) was once again Henrique Caprileswho had already faced off at the polls in Chávez’s last election.
Machado (Caracas, 1967), daughter of a businessman expropriated by Chavismo, engineer and involved in the reintegration of children at risk of social exclusion, was an attractive and eloquent leader. The term ‘exit’ was already being considered by part of the oppositiondivided between the most radical, the moderate and those who were exploring avenues for dialogue. The hostilities between the different currents of the opposition had played in favor of the regime in Chávez’s time.
Capriles came close to winning at the polls. Closer than ever. But that closeness did not help them move towards the ‘exit’. In the following decade, several other men led the opposition, now divided between those in favor of boycotting the polls and those who continued to try. The charismatic leader of Voluntad Popular burst in Leopoldo Lopezwhose wife, Lilian Tintori, became his voice during the years he spent in the Ramo Verde military prison, then under house arrest, until he was exiled to Spain. The hopes of many were placed, already in 2019, in the president of Parliament Juan Guaidóof Voluntad Popular, who achieved recognition from the international community as ‘interim’ or ‘legitimate’ president. It was a symbolic recognition, which did not entail an ‘exit’.
Political disqualification
Ten years after Chávez’s death, in 2023, the time seemed ripe for Machado to lead the fight from the polls. In 2014 he had campaigned with López and Antonio Ledezma, in what was called Democratic Unity. Their objective was to force Maduro’s ‘exit’ by force from the street. There were weeks of mobilizations, bloodily repressed. Machado was prosecuted for instigation of violence. She was prohibited from leaving the country and was politically disqualified.
She was determined to be the candidate of anti-Chavismo. He registered in the 2023 primaries and swept: he obtained the support of 92.3% of the votes. But the Supreme Court annulled that vote. She was disqualified for another 15 years. She gave the position to another woman, the historian Corina Yoris. But she couldn’t register either. The task thus passed to Edmundo González Urrutiathe opposition candidate who, according to Machado, won with 70% of the votes. Maduro and his solicitous electoral authority do not recognize that victory, but they did not show the minutes either.
The path to the polls seems exhausted for many Venezuelans. But something changed for the defenders of the ‘exit’ with the arrival to power of Donald Trump. This Wednesday, Machado will receive the Nobel Peace Prize that the American president wanted for himself. Intelligent and brave, the first thing he did when he heard his name in the Nobel announcement was to thank Trump for his support. The most powerful man on earth, for his part, was at least happy with the decision.
Trump’s way
Machado supports the way Trump intends to force Maduro’s ‘exit’. He supports the military intervention that the US president says he is willing to launch in Venezuela. They do not revolt against the bombings ordered by the Republican against barges with Venezuelans allegedly dedicated to the drug traffickingincluding the alleged execution of those who survive. Nor against the deportations of Venezuelans ordered by Trump or the racist treatment with which the president refers to his compatriots. When he says Trump’s name it is in terms of gratitude.
A Nobel Peace Prize awaits Machado in Oslo, whose last Latin American winner was Colombian President Juan Manual Santos, in 2016. In his case, for the peace agreement between the Colombian State and the FARC guerrilla. It was a risky decision by the Nobel Committee: the announcement of Santos’ award came four days after winning the ‘no’ vote in the referendum with which the president aspired to legitimize his agreement. The Oslo prize should be understood as an impulse to find how to implement it, despite the Colombians’ vote against it.
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