A turbulent start to the presidential campaign in Venezuela.
Maria Corina Machado, who handily won the Venezuelan opposition primary for the 2024 presidential election, is currently out of the race: the Supreme Court of Venezuela, often accused of being at the behest of those in power, has confirmed this Friday his ineligibility.
Maria Machado, 56, “is disqualified for 15 years”, writes the Court, judging “null” the request of the candidate, who contested her ineligibility for administrative irregularities and treason after having supported American sanctions against the government of Nicolás Maduro.
The opposition has always refused these sanctions, believing that Maria Machado was innocent.
“Fraudulent elections”
President Nicolás Maduro is taking the “worst path” towards “fraudulent elections”, reacted Maria Machado.
" It will not happen.
Let no one doubt it, we will go to the end,” she said on the X network. “The regime has decided to terminate the Barbados agreement.
What is NOT over is our struggle to win democracy through free and fair elections,” she added.
The Court's decision was eagerly awaited, the opposition – which had boycotted the 2018 presidential election – and the United States having made the lifting of opponents' ineligibility one of their main priorities.
Many observers believe that Maria Machado, a liberal renowned for her combativeness, may be able to rally behind her an opposition often divided in the past against Nicolás Maduro, who will seek a third presidential term.
The government has often used the stratagem of ineligibility to exclude rivals both at the national and local levels.
The lifting of the ineligibility of opponents is one of the main sticking points in the negotiations between power and opposition.
The agreement they signed in Barbados in October 2023 opened the possibility for those “aspiring to run” for the 2024 presidential election to challenge their ineligibility.
Maria Machado had submitted an appeal in this context.
American sanctions reinstated?
The Barbados agreement also provided that the presidential election would be held in the second half of 2024 with the presence of international observers.
The United States announced a six-month relaxation of its sanctions following these agreements.
Following this decision, the United States is considering reinstating sanctions.
The United States, which announced in mid-October a reduction in its sanctions imposed against Caracas in the gas and oil sectors, “is in the process of reviewing its sanctions policy (…) on the basis of this development and the recent political targeting of democratic opposition and civil society candidates,” said spokesperson Matthew Miller.