US considers reimposing sanctions on Venezuelan regime after disqualification of opposition leaders

The presidential candidate of the Venezuelan opposition, María Corina Machado, prepares her defense against the 15-year disqualification imposed on her by the Chavista Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) and assures that she intends to continue her campaign “until the end” despite the obstacles posed by the government of Nicolás Maduro on their way.

At the same time, after confirming the disqualification of Machado and also of the opposition leader Henrique Capriles, the United States announced on Saturday that it is considering the reintroduction of sanctions against the Chavista regime, which they had lifted months ago, after an agreement between the government and opposition…

A press conference is scheduled for next Monday in which Machado will detail how he will approach his electoral career, according to his electoral command. Clarion He spoke with Magalli Menda, head of the command, who said that “an election without María Corina is not an election, it will be a fraud.”

He argues that the Maduro regime “maintains power through repression and fraud in its police and judicial system. We’ve seen it so many times. They don’t open the spaces. The Barbados Plan has been diluted.”

The Political-Administrative Chamber of the TSJ has decided to ratify “unconstitutionally” the accusations of the Comptroller General (court of auditors) of ban Machado from public office for allegedly “participating in the corruption plot orchestrated by the usurper Juan Guaidó, which led to the criminal blockade of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.”

The TSJ decided this Friday to disqualify the presidential candidate without taking into account the fact that the Venezuelan Constitution establishes that only a “definitely firm” judicial ruling prevents him from aspiring to the presidency. And in the case of María Corina there are no sentences or notifications, so the TSJ’s sentence is invalid, according to jurists.

The new liberal leader, 56 years old, has always defined the Chavista disqualification measure as illegal, which did not prevent her from winning around 2.5 million votes (92%) in the primaries of the opposition coalition Democratic United Platform on 22 October.

In response to the TSJ ruling, Machado announced on his X account that “the regime has decided to end the Barbados agreement.”

He has no intention of giving up on the TSJ resolution: “What is NOT over is our fight to achieve democracy through free and fair elections.”

Therefore “Maduro and his criminal system have chosen the worst path: fraudulent elections. Not gonna happen. Let no one doubt it, this until the end,” the candidate said defiantly.

The TSJ also disqualified this Friday the former governor of Miranda and former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles for 15 years in 2012 and 2013.

Sanctions

The United States government spoke out this Saturday following the ratification of the political bans against Machado and Capriles by the Supreme Court of Justice.

The decision of the Venezuelan Supreme Court of Justice to confirm the disqualifications of María Corina Machado and Henrique Capriles undermines the competitiveness of the presidential elections. Based on this action and attacks against the opposition and civil society, “The United States is reviewing its sanctions policy.”said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.

His statement states that “this deeply worrying decision “is contrary to the commitments made by Maduro and his representatives under the Barbados Electoral Roadmap Agreement to allow all parties to select their own candidates for the presidential elections.”

The text adds that “the United States is currently reviewing its sanctions policy against Venezuela, based on this fact and recent political attacks against opposition candidates democracy and civil society.

For his part, Rick Scott asks Joe Biden to reimpose sanctions on Nicolás Maduro: “I should never have trusted him, and now that thug has deceived him,” he said on his X account.

Reactions

For jurist Zair Mundaray, with the disqualification sentence “a flagrant crime of falsification of a public document was committed in front of all Venezuelans”.

In his conversation with Clarion, Mundaray reports that the regime has forged an administrative act with particular effects dated 16 September 2021, number 01-00-000285, which never existed. “The proof is the document exhibited by the scorpion José Brito, which states that the disqualification was issued on July 13, 2015. This reveals an extraordinary conspiracy of state corruption and violation of political rights, in which a public document was falsified to prevent the rights of María Corina”.

The jurist underlines that appealing to the ruling of the Constitutional Chamber is very “uphill, we are trapped”. He describes the TSJ as a “collection of criminals”. The way out of this labyrinth is political, I don’t see any other way.”

Alí Daniels, lawyer, human rights defender and director of the NGO Acceso a la Justicia, mentioned the digital portal Cocuyo effect on the possibility of appealing the disqualification. “I don’t know if there is interest from Machado’s lawyers, but formally the trial is closed. This is something extraordinary that can be exercised or not and it is not like the appeal, which is something immediate,” she said.

María Corina did not practice no charge in Juan Guaidó’s three-year interim mandate, so they cannot accuse her of “betrayal of the country” as indicated by the TSJ. In this sense, the economist José Guerra defined the Supreme Court ruling as an “aberration”, since it has no reason to sanction the presidential candidate.

Antonio Ledezma, coordinator of María Corina Machado’s international political council, said from exile in Spain that the anti-Chavista presidential candidate “will be the standard-bearer of the Venezuelan people against all odds. Without María Corina the elections will be a fraud.”

He argued that the TSJ “consumed a fraud that, like dynamite, explodes in the middle of negotiations,” alluding to meetings between President Nicolás Maduro’s delegates and representatives of the United Platform, the main opposition group.

The politician Andrés Velásquez, for his part, declared: “I confirm that the disqualification of María Corina does not exist from a strictly constitutional point of view”, and reiterated that he will support the leader’s candidacy until the end.

Causa R politician Alfredo Ramos said that “Maduro and his gang believe that with these illegal disqualifications they will prevent change in Venezuela. We arrive at the end with María Corina, our unity candidate and national leader elected by the people. Maduro and his mafias’ days are numbered. Change is unstoppable.”

The 29 former heads of state members of the Democratic Initiative of Spain and the Americas, IDEA, have released a statement on social networks in which they condemn the unconstitutional disqualification of María Corina Machado and recognize their legitimate democratic leadership. They are also asking for the intervention of the guarantors of the Barbados Accords, signed last October.

Writer and journalist Thays Peñalver stated in her X account that the TSJ ruling “is not against María Corina, it is against the desire for freedom, democracy and peace of millions of Venezuelans. He is not against it, but against what it represents: the hope of re-establishing the Republic, the decency of reviving this nation and the values ​​to unite it”.

For his part, politician Juan Pablo Guanipa of the Primero Justicia party ratified his support for the leader’s candidacy. “The candidate of Venezuelan democracy has a first and last name: Maria Corina Machado”.

“What a small group of Chavista judges in the TSJ says will not erase the votes of nearly 3 million Venezuelans. It is clear that Chavismo knows it is alone and that is why it uses its judicial office. They will not intimidate us: from now on we will continue the campaign until we achieve the change we all want. Viva Venezuela Libre!, expressed Guanipa on his X account.

The former governor of Táchira and former primary candidate, César Pérez Vivas, expressed his support for María Corina. He stated that the ruling of the Supreme Court of Justice against María Corina Machado is a move by the party in power “to perpetuate itself in power”.