Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles Radonski speaks during a press conference in Caracas, on August 11, 2021. (Photo by Federico PARRA / AFP) FEDERICO PARRA / AFP
Henrique Capriles takes the microphone again at a crucial moment for the opposition. This week began the registration of candidates for the regional and local elections on November 21. But time is moving on and so far the opposition has not posed a clear position on this new electoral crossroads, although there are candidates from all parties campaigning in neighborhoods and communities. Capriles has called to vote and asks to join efforts to achieve unitary candidacies through consensus, surveys or primaries wherever the time frame allows them to be organized. "We have to make use of our right, that people express themselves, despite all the outrages they have done with the right to vote," said the leader of Primero Justicia at a press conference on Wednesday. “I am going to vote, that is clear to me.And we have to assume this process that is just around the corner without complexes. We have to present candidates and local leaderships to the whole country and agglutinate the discontent ”, he added.
In the last two years, Capriles has been very critical of the strategy that Juan Guaidó has pushed. Now he has left behind the accusations and the accusations. The tone and message of this Wednesday seek to add and highlight the differences with the electoral conditions of last year, when he also called to participate in the parliamentary elections, but later withdrew.
In his opinion, the renewal of the National Electoral Council, which was carried out months ago due to pressure from sectors of civil society, moved the political board.
In February, Enrique Márquez and Roberto Picón joined the body of rectors.
For the first time on the board, two of the five members are not linked to Chavismo.
“I know two rectors and I defend them with my eyes closed.
That they are inside is a guarantee, we did not have that last year.
The conditions must be fought until the day of the elections, "he said.
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For the parliamentary elections of December 2020, the opposition decided to stay out and boycott the legitimacy of the process. The National Assembly passed into the hands of Chavismo in elections that recorded a historic abstention peak. At that time, the end of the opposition leadership built around the figure of the interim government was also decreed, the letter with which Juan Guaidó challenged Chavismo in January 2019, when he assumed the presidency of Parliament and capitalized on the international ignorance of a second term in office. Nicolás Maduro, re-elected in the disputed elections of May 20, 2018. During this time, Guaidó has lost an important part of popular support, but continues to retain support and recognition from the United States, mainly, and is considered an important interlocutor on the part of the European Union.
Capriles pointed out that the electoral event is a step that the opposition cannot avoid on its way to achieving political change in the country and that it is complementary to the new negotiation that begins this Friday in Mexico City.
“The objective is not the regional election, but it touches.
The objective is further, the negotiation will not end before November 21 ”, he said.
“We must not miss this opportunity, we must rescue the vote, we must tell people to express themselves, we must mobilize and organize.
There is talk of a recall, of an electoral schedule, but there will be a greater probability of achieving the objective by having people organized and everywhere.
At that leap in the presidential election we will arrive better prepared ”.
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The two-time presidential candidate indicated that the opposition should participate under the card of the Democratic Unity Table, the platform that allowed them to be a majority in 2015 and that the Supreme Court judicially blocked and recently authorized, as one of the concessions of Chavismo to the before the pressure in the diplomatic and economic field. His Primero Justicia party has also been vetoed by the government from participating, as has Voluntad Popular and Acción Democrática, which have been imposed by parallel boards of directors. Capriles, however, speaks for him. Well, his party and the unitary platform that make up the so-called G4 and 40 other organizations are focused on continuing in negotiations to achieve greater electoral guarantees.
Capriles has also referred to the dialogue that begins this Friday in Mexico.
“I agree with and support any process that normalizes coexistence in the country.
It is what we aspire to in Mexico.
We need a negotiation agreement that helps the country solve its problems, that incorporates not only the political, but also economic and social issues that will alleviate the crisis that the vast majority of Venezuelans are experiencing, ”he said.
The opposition leader also insisted that the negotiation process is not exclusive of participating in the elections: “We have to regain strength and be a power option, we were a robust force that generated hope in the people.
And that is recoverable, because politics is not linear, it moves ”.
The Venezuelan crisis has gone through a period of stagnation to once again be at a limit moment.
The scenario of hopelessness about political change has been lived before as it is now.
A July survey by the consulting firm Delphos and the Center for Government Studies of the Andrés Bello Catholic University recorded that the opposition's political capital was at 35.9% and that of Chavismo at 25.3%.
A large 38.8% do not support any of the sectors.
Today, however, the opposition advances united to the negotiation process and a large part of it is prone to electoral participation.
Also Washington and Brussels are now pushing a common strategy to facilitate an exit.
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