Chavismo excludes the candidacy of the opposition Corina Yoris, substitute for María Corina Machado

Chavismo has ended up choosing the candidate of the Venezuelan opposition.

In the final stretch of a day of tension and negotiations, the moderate Enrique Márquez, linked to the Un Nuevo Tiempo party, who was initially going to support María Corina Machado and her successor, Corina Yoris, was able to register his candidacy with another list.

This is the Centrados organization, annulled two weeks ago and readmitted again by the National Electoral Council (CNE).

Yoris has not been able to formalize her application due to an alleged computer failure on the electoral authority's page.

The Unitary Platform debates a possible replacement for Yoris.

It remains to be seen if the movement that Machado built in recent months coalesces around Márquez, who until last year occupied a chair as rector of the National Electoral Council and who was then forced to resign, along with the entire governing body, to give way to a board totally loyal to Maduro.

Márquez, a moderate politician and negotiator, little known and unpopular, was part of what was the “most balanced” electoral board in 20 years in Venezuela.

His application, at the moment, when the candidates proposed by the Unitary Platform have not been able to register, could ensure a position for the sector critical of Maduro.

But it could also threaten the opposition unity achieved so far.

The last hours of the presidential candidacy registration period in Venezuela have been absolute suspense.

The CNE has used the “modern automated system” that it frequently boasts of to block and readmit parties citing “technical failures” as part of a political game that seeks to close any possibility that Nicolás Maduro, with 80% rejection of the population, could lose in the appointment set for July 28.

In the afternoon, the extension of the application period was ruled out so that four remaining organizations could complete their process.

In addition to the Democratic Unity Roundtable and Un Nuevo Tiempo, the Ecological Movement of Venezuela and the dissidents of the Communist Party of Venezuela were left out, also in dispute over the ownership of the party, and Fuerza Vecinal, which, in theory, would adhere to the MUD nomination in favor of Yoris.

The outcome is not yet definitive, at least on paper, since the authorities still need to admit the candidates and a process of challenges is also opening in which everything can change.

There are still four months of struggle until the elections.

Henrique Capriles, who intended to be a candidate last year, has warned the opposition leadership of the need to make decisions so as not to be left out of the race.

“You have to have the strength to make unfair but inevitable decisions.

We must ensure that the country has an option to be able to vote.”

Machado waited until last Friday for the possibility of lifting the disqualification that the Supreme Court had issued in a ruling considered unconstitutional.

That day she announced her substitute candidacy in agreement with the parties that support her and that are integrated into the Unitary Platform.

Corina Yoris, with no history in public administration or any weakness that could be legally used to veto her, assumed responsibility for her nomination.

But Chavismo has still prevented it.

The CNE did not authorize representatives of the two cards that could nominate her, that of the Democratic Unity Table, and that of the Un Nuevo Tiempo party, to enter the platform to register her name.

On the other hand, nine other candidates, from an opposition that coexists with Chavismo, have been able to complete the process.

Several of them from parties that have been judicially intervened in the past to put in place directives compatible with Chavismo, such as Popular Will that registered Daniel Ceballos or Democratic Action that supports Luis Eduardo Fernández.

For its nomination of Maduro, the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela calmly took the blocks of downtown Caracas and organized a rally with supporters from all over the country.

The PSUV militancy, led by the national leadership of the party, - with the first lady, Cilia Flores, Diosdado Cabello and the brothers Jorge and Delcy Rodríguez, Rafal Lacava and Héctor Rodríguez at the forefront - walked to the CNE headquarters at noon very sunny and hot.

As president-candidate, Maduro entered, literally, on a red carpet, the headquarters of the National Electoral Council, located in the El Silencio Towers in the center of the city.

Wearing a sporty outfit, and showing everyone a poster with photos of Simón Bolívar and Hugo Chávez, he was received by the organization's board of directors, headed by Elvis Amoroso, his personal friend, a PSUV militant lawyer very close to the Miraflores Palace, who informed the president of the number of registered candidates.

In front of the directive of the Electoral Power, Maduro was presented by Diosdado Cabello, first vice president of the party and number two of the Chavista regime, who delivered to the rectors the form that nominated him as the party's candidate.

He entrusted the current president with “the destiny of the country,” and was sure that he “will never disappoint the Venezuelan people.”

Taking the floor and thanking Cabello, Maduro gave a speech designed for the faithful of his party, where the figure of Hugo Chávez was exalted, emphasis was placed on the struggle of these years to preserve the independence of the nation, and they launched harsh comments against his enemies of “the oligarchy and the surnames”, as he refers to the Venezuelan opposition, today the majority in opinion polls, which is still unable to register a candidate.

“With or without you, we are going to hold elections this July 28,” Maduro told his adversaries, just as he did in 2018. The Bolivarian leader then gave another speech in Plaza Diego Ibarra, once outside the CNE.

In the midst of a security deployment with the military and police, Maduro once again denounced an assassination attempt in his own nomination.

“Today two men with weapons who intended to attack me were captured.

They already declared, they are part of the far-right fascist party Vente Venezuela.

"They are captured and confessed, infiltrated here in the march."

Immediately, the Public Ministry reported that they were detained near the presidential stage and that they are being prosecuted for terrorism, association, attempted assassination, instigation of hatred and illicit possession of a firearm in prohibited places.

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