Elections in Venezuela: a “civil war” in the ranks of the opposition, the best scenario for Maduro

United in the goal of defeating Nicolás Maduro in the presidential elections in July, divided on “with whom”: the Venezuelan opposition seeks to avoid an “internal war” to define the candidate for the presidential elections, a scenario that only benefits the socialist president.

Maduro, in power since 2013, he aspires to a third term six years on July 28.

After several days of lockdown and about to expire the deadline, the opposition managed to register two candidates before the National Electoral Council (CNE), accused of serving Chavismo.

But neither is the one proposed by leader María Corina Machado, who won the opposition primaries in 2023 but has been politically disqualified and cannot participate in the elections.

They appear in the list of 13 candidates for the presidency of Venezuela Manuel Rosalesgovernor of the oil state of Zulia (west) and rival of Hugo Chávez in 2006, and Edmundo González Urrutia, have registered “provisionally” until the sole candidate for the United Democratic Platform (PUD) alliance is defined.

Machado’s support It will be crucial for who ends up in the runoff.

“I will do everything I have to do for unity,” Rosales said Tuesday, amid accusations that he “betrayed” her. “If the platform asks, agrees, decides something, I stay on the platform, I don’t move even an inch from there.”

A promise from the opposition it needs you to respect.

“The internal agreements of the opposition must be governed by art maintain unity as the best possible strategy”, political analyst Yoel Lugo told AFP. “The smart thing now It is not an opposition civil warwhich only favors the candidacy of Nicolás Maduro,” said former CNE director Vicente Díaz.

The polls give Maduro support between 15 and 20%.

“My candidate is Corina Yoris,” launched Machado after Rosales’ registration. Yoris, an eighty-year-old academic, had bet to represent her in the elections, but it could never be registered before the “lockdown” in the system that the PUD has been reporting since Thursday, when it opened the trial.

Experts and opposition sources agree that Yoris’s candidacy will not be possible, who He called Rosales “Judas.” “How can you react to a betrayal? A betrayal is a betrayal,” the philosopher also said on Colombian radio Blu.

For now Machado has not attacked Rosales, Nor did he call for a boycott of the elections.as the opposition did in 2018, when Maduro was re-elected for the first time in the midst of an unprecedented economic crisis.

“The restrictions of this electoral process they just leave a crack pass – said Piero Trepiccione, political scientist and commentator. “This gap forces the opposition even more to dialogue and reach an agreement.”

“I hope they don’t step on the comb and fall into the trap of government-backed fragmentation,” he added.

Until April 20th

The opposition yes You have until April 20th to define the candidate: The most obvious scenario so far is that González Urrutia declines in favor of Rosales.

While the name is being finalized, Rosales began his campaign with an event at a convention center in Maracaibo, capital of Zulia. Hundreds of militants shake his hand, hug him and take selfies with their cell phones.

“Leaving Venezuela without the possibility of voting would be very serious, very sad,” he said during a press conference the day before in Caracas. “I had to make a decision and I made it.”

Rosales denounced “a war of networks” against him. They are “inventing, slandering, defaming that if I am Maduro’s candidate, that I negotiated with Maduro, May God protect and favor me!“. Opponents, including some radical leaders, echoed this theory the approaches he has had since taking office.

Machado put an emotional campaign on holdwith whom he toured the country for months, giving speeches from trucks or along secondary roads on the motorbike.

In Carabobo (central-north), Karín Rodríguez, a 58-year-old bricklayer, summed up the sentiment of the majority of her followers: “We will vote for whoever she says,” she said.