The presidential candidate of the Venezuelan opposition, María Corina Machado, is preparing her defense against the 15-year disqualification imposed on her by the Chavista Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ), and assures that she plans to continue her campaign “until the end” despite the
obstacles that the government of Nicolás Maduro puts
in his path.
At the same time, after confirming the disqualification of Machado and also the opposition leader Henrique Capriles, the United States announced this Saturday that it is evaluating reimposing the sanctions on the Chavista regime, which it had lifted months ago, after an agreement between the government and the opposition. .
A press conference is scheduled for next Monday where Machado will speak with details about how he will face his electoral career, according to his campaign command.
Clarín
spoke with Magalli Menda, the head of the command, who stated that “elections without María Corina are not elections, they will be a fraud.”
He maintains that the Maduro regime “holds on to power with repression and fraud in its police and judicial system.
We have seen it so many times.
They don't open the spaces.
The Barbados Plan was diluted.”
The Political-Administrative Chamber of the TSJ decided to “unconstitutionally” ratify the allegations of the Comptroller General (court of accounts) to
ban Machado from public office
for allegedly being “a participant in the corruption plot orchestrated by the usurper Juan Guaidó, who “promoted the criminal blockade of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.”
The TSJ decided to disqualify the presidential candidate this Friday without taking into account that the Venezuelan Constitution establishes that only a “definitely firm” judicial ruling prevents her from aspiring to the presidency.
And in the case of María Corina there are no sentences or notifications so the TSJ ruling is invalid, according to jurists.
Henrique Capriles, another Venezuelan opposition leader banned by the Nicolás Maduro regime.
Photo.
AFP
The new liberal leader, 56, has always described the measure of Chavista disqualification as illegal, which has not prevented her from winning some 2.5 million votes (92%) in the primaries of the opposition coalition Democratic Unitary Platform on Last October 22.
In response to the TSJ ruling, Machado announced in his X account that “the regime decided to end the Barbados Agreement.”
He does not plan to give up before the TSJ resolution: “What is NOT over is our fight to conquer democracy through free and fair elections.”
Therefore, “Maduro and his criminal system chose the worst path for themselves: fraudulent elections.
That's not gonna happen.
Let no one doubt it, this is until the end,” the candidate said defiantly.
The regime decided to end the Barbados Agreement.
What is NOT ending is our fight to conquer democracy through free and fair elections.
Maduro and his criminal system chose the worst path for them: fraudulent elections.
That's not going to…
— María Corina Machado (@MariaCorinaYA) January 26, 2024
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 after the ratification of political disqualifications 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 a competitive presidential election.
"Based on this action and the attacks against the opposition and civil society, the
United States is reviewing its sanctions policy
," said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.
In its statement it states that "this
deeply worrying decision
goes against the commitments made by Maduro and his representatives under the Barbados electoral roadmap agreement to allow all parties to select their candidates for the presidential elections."
The text adds that "currently, the United States is reviewing the sanctions policy against Venezuela, based on this fact and on the recent
political attacks against candidates of the
democratic opposition and civil society."
For his part, Rick Scott demands that Joe Biden 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 ruling “a flagrant crime of forging a public document has been committed in front of all Venezuelans.”
In his conversation with
Clarin
, Mundaray denounces that the regime forged an administrative act of particular effects dated September 16, 2021, number 01-00-000285, which never existed.
“The evidence is the document that the scorpion José Brito exhibited, which said that the disqualification was issued on July 13, 2015. This reveals an extraordinary plot of state corruption and violation of political rights, in which a public act was falsified to impede the rights of María Corina.”
The jurist points out that resorting to the ruling in the Constitutional Chamber is very “uphill, we are trapped.”
He describes the TSJ as a “caterva 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 to the digital portal
Effect Cocuyo
about the possibility of appealing the disqualification.
“I don't know if there is interest from Machado's lawyers, but formally the trial is over.
“This is something extraordinary that can be exercised or not and is not like the appeal which is something immediate,” he said.
María Corina has not held
any position
during Juan Guaidó's three-year interim term, so they cannot accuse her of “treason to the country” as indicated by the TSJ.
In that sense, economist José Guerra described the supreme court's ruling as an “aberration” because he 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.”
@Almagro_OEA2015 @WhiteHouse @StateDept @EU_Commission @10DowningStreet @JustinTrudeau @CanadianPM 29 Former heads of state IDEA Group condemn the unconstitutional disqualification of María Corina Machado.
They recognize her legitimate democratic leadership.
Barbados guarantors demand action.
pic.twitter.com/nxX66DRbDh
— Democratic Initiative of Spain and the Americas.
(@IDEA_Grupo) January 27, 2024
He argued that the TSJ “has consummated a fraud that, like dynamite, explodes in the midst of negotiations,” alluding to the meetings between delegates of President Nicolás Maduro and representatives of the Unitary Platform, the main opposition group.
The politician Andrés Velásquez, in turn, stated: "I confirm that the disqualification of María Corina does not exist from a strict constitutional point of view," and reiterated that he will support the leader's candidacy until the end.
The Causa R politician, Alfredo Ramos, said that “Maduro and his gang believe that with these illegal disqualifications they will prevent change in Venezuela.
We are going to the end with María Corina, our unity candidate and national leader elected by the people.
Maduro and his mafias have their days numbered.
The change is unstoppable.”
The 29 former heads of state, members of the Democratic Initiative of Spain and the Americas, IDEA, issued a statement on social networks condemning the unconstitutional disqualification of María Corina Machado and
recognizing her legitimate democratic leadership
.
They also demand the action of guarantors of the Barbados Agreements, signed last October.
The writer and journalist Thays Peñalver said 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.
It is not against it but against what it represents: the hope to re-establish the Republic, the decency to raise this nation again 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 tiny group of Chavista judges say in the TSJ is not going to erase the votes of almost 3 million Venezuelans.
It is clear that Chavismo knows that they are alone and that is why they use their judicial office.
They are not going to intimidate us: From now on we continue campaigning until we achieve the change that we all want.
Long live Venezuela Libre!, Guanipa expressed in his X account.
The former governor of Táchira and former primary candidate, César Pérez Vivas, expressed his support for María Corina.
He affirmed that the ruling of the Supreme Court of Justice against María Corina Machado is a move by the ruling party "to perpetuate itself in power."
C.B.