Venezuela: Nicolás Maduro intensifies the offensive against the opposition and denounces Corina Machado’s party as “terrorist”

On Wednesday, Venezuela’s authoritarian regime once again intensified its offensive against the opposition, making open appeals of a “terrorist movement” to the Vente Venezuela party of former MP María Corina Machado.

The Chavista leader Nicolás Maduro made the serious accusation, in the midst of the election campaign in which he seeks a second re-election in July’s presidential election. The attack on Vente Venezuela in these terms sought to justify a chain of raids by the regime’s political police against the militants of that organization which leads the entire opposition and is the favorite to gain power.

In recent days, two other leaders of the group have been arrested. Five others had already been arrested and arrest warrants were issued against seven others, six of whom sought refuge in the Argentine embassy in Caracas. All were accused of an alleged plot to assassinate Maduro.

The regime usually uses this type of denunciation regarding dubious assassination attempts, without providing further evidence, as a pretext to persecute its internal adversaries and destroy them. In the official narrative, Maduro has been the target of serious conspiracies on numerous occasions, a circumstance that usually occurs when the regime faces central elections, as in 2018, when the Chavista leader won his first re-election amid a hail of accusations of fraud. and poll manipulation.

“They chase me to try to make an attempt on my lifeas demonstrated with the capture of individuals from the terrorist movement called Vente Venezuela… It will be Vente Terrorista,” Maduro said in a broadcast on state television.

This is a particularly serious accusation because it opens up the possibility that the opposition leader will also be arrested by the political police, diplomatic sources say. The Attorney General, Tarek William Saab, aligned with the regime, announced charges of “terrorism” and “attempted murder”, against the group. The party immediately denied the accusations, calling them “unfounded” and absurd.

Hugo Chávez’s successor said Monday that two armed men who intended to assassinate him were arrested during a demonstration he organized in Caracas after he registered his candidacy for re-election, linking them to Vente Venezuela.

The Argentine government confirmed Tuesday that its ambassador’s residence in Caracas welcomes Venezuelan opponents faced with “acts of harassment and persecution”without revealing their identity.

The press published that six activists linked to Machado requested refuge in that diplomatic headquarters, including his trusted woman, Magalli Meda, who was the candidate to replace the former deputy as the opposition group’s presidential candidate.

Machado, favored in the polls, won the primaries of the opposition United Platform coalition last year by more than 90% of the votes but he was unable to run due to the 15-year ban imposed by the regime. According to polls, women have a significant difference in support among voters compared to Chavismo, which has been in power for 25 years.

The obstacles

The coalition planned to register Corina Yoris, nominated by Machado herself to take her place, but she was also unable to do so when she reported being blocked in the electoral authority’s system. After strong pressure from the Brazilian government, an ally of the Caracas regime, which for the first time condemned the anti-democratic operations of the Chavista nomenklatura, you accepted the registration of the journalist and former diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia.

The opposition has tentatively taken note of this maintain this possibility and from Monday he will have the possibility to replace him if he prefers.

It is the first time that the experiment founded by Chávez at the beginning of the century has faced the possibility of being removed from power. Maduro negotiated with Brazil, The United States and the European Union have reached an agreement on democratic opening, the release of political prisoners and the lifting of bans in exchange for relief from North America and six months of economic sanctions against the Caribbean country.

Joe Biden’s government also agreed to release and bring back to Caracas the Colombian “businessman” Alex Saab, Maduro’s historic partner in business ventures with the regime, detained in June 2020 in Cape Verde, accused of money laundering .

The economic difficulties have eased and the country began to experience an influx of investment in oil, gas, and mining. But the regime failed to regain popularity even by reviving the old conflict over the sovereignty of Essequibo, a rich territory in the hands of Guyana.

Thus, to ensure its continuity, it repeated the model of repression of Daniel Ortega’s Nicaraguan dictatorship, and suppressed the main opposition leaders, in particular Machado, a sure candidate to win the elections. In this sense he spread the version of the assassination, to decapitate the party.