Venezuela and a new fraud? How Maduro made elections tailored to him

April 14, 2013. Hugo Chavez He had died a month earlier and Venezuelans had to go to the polls to elect his successor. In life, he had already decided that his candidate should be Nicolás Maduro, his vice president and chancellor for seven years. On the opposition side, the candidate of the Round Table of Democratic Unity (MUD) coalition was Henry Caprilesand one of the most promising anti-Chavista politicians.

Official results indicated that Mature he won by a very small margin (around 223 thousand votes), with 50.61% support, while his opponent reached 49.12%, a figure that has always been suspicious.

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“They stole my victory. “These guys stole the elections”, I haven’t stopped saying Caprileswhose requests for audits and reviews only fell on deaf ears.

Henrique Capriles and Nicolás Maduro faced each other in the 2013 elections in Venezuela. (Photo by LEO RAMIREZ – RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP). (LEO RAMIREZ – RONALDO SCHEMIDT/)

Eleven years later It is already known that the numbers have been changed and that the regime managed to make more votes appear in the electronic system to Mature (around 600 thousand), although until 6pm on April 14 Capriles He had already statistically won the elections, according to the book “Bumerán Chávez”, by journalist Emili Blasco, from the Spanish newspaper ABC.

Nicolás Maduro thus began his first six-year term and on July 28, 2024, he hopes to be elected for the third time. Several elections have taken place since then – parliamentary, regional and the 2018 presidential elections – and the methods of Chavismo-Madurismo have not changed much. Although they admitted defeats, such as the 2015 parliamentary and some regional defeats, The regime has dedicated itself to disqualifying troublesome candidates, arresting opponents and reinterpreting the law so as not to grant power.

Nicolás Maduro gestures while voting in Caracas, on April 14, 2013. (Photo: AFP). (RAUL ARBOLEDA DAVID MARIS/)

“Between those 2013 elections and the 2015 parliamentary elections, which the government lost overwhelmingly, Chavismo came to the conclusion that it had lost the electoral base it previously enjoyed,” he explains to The trade the Venezuelan lawyer and political analyst, Luis Salamanca.

A year earlier, Chavez had won the elections – also against Capriles– with 55% of the votes. But in that 2013, Mature He lost around 750,000 Chavista votes. “Having this evidence, the regime turned to an anti-electoral practice to end the liquidation of the last democratic link, which is competitive elections”, says Salamanca, who was also rector of the National Electoral Council (CNE). “Competitiveness has disappeared because it is a measure between the real political forces operating in a democratic country. If the State introduces a prejudice that excludes that opposing force that can defeat it, competitiveness ends, which is what matters.”

A man holds a newspaper that refers to the victory of re-elected president Nicolás Maduro in the Venezuelan presidential elections in Caracas, on May 21, 2018. (Photo by Luis ROBAYO/AFP). (LUIS ROBAYO/)

The irregularities of 2018

To continue to understand how the government has continued to act in presidential campaigns, it is also necessary to remember what happened in 2018, elections that were not even recognized by the international community and in which the opposition did not participate, considering that it could not endorse a null process. . In fact, For this election, the MUD was banned and later dissolved.

With Leopoldo López prisoner and Capriles Prevented from running, the regime was also responsible for changing deadlines and procedures that made it impossible to present a competitive opposition candidate. Finally, it was presented Henry Falcaoa former governor almost unknown to Venezuelans, who obtained 20.93% of the votes. Mature He won with 67.84% in an election that had very low participation by the population: only 46% went to vote, while in 2013 the figure was around 80%.

“Right now I am a better prepared president and human being,” said Maduro after winning elections tailor-made for him. Because not only was the opposition annulled, but coercion and tracking methods were also used against the beneficiaries of social programs, mainly Chavistas, to make them vote for the government.

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado (left) gestures with her replacement in the upcoming presidential elections, Corina Yoris. (Photo by Federico Parra/AFP). (FEDERICO PARRA/)

A hit of effect

Therefore, for 2024 the government is not expected to opt for a clean process. María Corina Machado managed, with more than 90% support in the primaries, to be the designated opposition candidate, But as she was disqualified, she gave up the position last Friday to the philosopher and historian Corina Yorisan 80-year-old academic, to not allow Mature run alone in elections.

The decision was surprising because Yoris She is not a political figure and is not known among the population, but she is a respectable member of civil society and has no outstanding issues in the Chavista justice system. However, there are days left to know if the electoral body has any arguments up its sleeve to also annul her candidacy.

“We must not forget that Maduro is electorally weak, so there are still things at stake,” warns Salamanca.

Nicolas Maduro. (AFP).

Source: Elcomercio