At the end of last year Venezuela’s democratic opposition has co-opted a candidate who can challenge the country’s authoritarian president, Nicolás Maduro. In an election that will definitely be violent and unfair. Hundreds of thousands of participants from various political parties. Vote in primary elections across Venezuela and in refugee communities abroad. Even though they are at risk of harassment and arrest. But people donated space in their homes and private offices to be able to vote. Others stood in line for hours in parks and plazas. To choose the winner María Corina Machado Machado’s career began when she founded the election tracking group more than two decades ago. And since then she has served as a member of the National Council. as party leader and has been a vocal supporter of international sanctions against the regime. Many years ago Venezuela’s leaders responded by repeatedly accusing her of conspiracy, treason, and even fraud. Don’t let her leave the country.–
After Machado won the primary election Maduro’s government has also banned her from running for president. Then block the replacement candidate. It eventually allowed the opposition to nominate retired diplomat Edmundo González, rather than weakening it. Instead, the civic movement gathered speed and Machado and her colleagues pulled off the success of the primary. Trained more than 1 million volunteers To protect the election, scheduled for July 28, thousands of workshops were held across the country. They have prepared inspections of polling stations. Report an anomaly using a secure app. Collect the tally sheets produced by each voting machine. Upload them to a secure website. And do all this in a place with a generator. This ensures that the generator will not be stopped by a deliberate power cut.
Result: The opposition won with approximately two-thirds of the votes. Moreover, Gonzalez’s supporters can prove they won. Thanks to the vote count posted online. A few days after that vote I’ve talked to opposition leaders who think the voting results are so clear that Maduro will have to accept them.
He didn’t. Five months have passed. Gonzalez is in exile in Spain. Machado remains in Venezuela. But hiding I spoke with her twice in the past few days on Zoom, once as part of an online event organized by the SNF Agora at Johns Hopkins University (where I am a senior fellow) and once alone. I don’t know her location.
In my own place – sometimes in Europe Sometimes in the United States – I am in the middle of what feels like a wave of pessimism about liberal democracy. Threats from Russian-military and Chinese spy technology Loss of faith in political institutions science institute All types of government agencies The feeling that social media is drowning all of us in nonsense. The Rise of Elon Musk, the Unaccountable Authority that money can influence political outcomes in the United States and elsewhere. All of this means that we are ending 2024 at a time when many citizens of the world’s freest and most prosperous societies are still I don’t feel very optimistic.
Machado, on the other hand, lives in an abused country. Thanks to the government’s misgovernment. This makes Venezuela, once the richest country in South America, became the poorest country The citizens of this country are malnourished and poor. More refugees leave Venezuela More than Syria or Ukraine– But Machado is also optimistic, not just “optimistic about the situation” but truly optimistic.
During our conversation, Machado sits in front of a blank wall with no other backdrop. Both times she was calm, confident, even graceful. She didn’t look tired or stressed at all. Or what should someone who hasn’t seen her family or friends since July look like? She wore simple makeup and accessories. She appears determined and positive. This is because Machado told me that she believes the campaign and its aftermath have changed Venezuela forever. brought about what she called “Anthropological Change”
By this, she meant that the grassroots political movement that she and her colleagues had built had changed attitudes and created new connections between people. The carefully organized primary elections had brought together old opposition contenders. together Volunteer training has provided hundreds of thousands of people with real-world experience. It’s not just about voting. But it also involves building institutions from scratch. Those efforts didn’t end with last summer’s election. “July 28th isn’t just about work,” Machado told me. “It is a process that brings our country together. And no matter how many days it takes Venezuela has changed forever and ever,” said her team of leaders across the country. It doesn’t just create a movement for one candidate or election. But it also creates a movement for lasting change. The scale of success includes the number of people involved. and geographic and socioeconomic boundaries. It will be prominent in liberal democracies. in a totalitarian state This project is outstanding.
Machado acknowledged the price was already high. “Although this is a miracle in terms of our success, But it is also very painful and dangerous,” she tells me. Like many dictators, they know they are hated by their own people—the recently ousted Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad. Come to this thought—Maduro has become more brutal. more cruel and became more vengeful as time passed. There are also security forces. It is considered the home of Gonzalez’s supporters. too X and encourage citizens to report and harass them. The government shot and killed protesters and More than 2,000 people were imprisoned.yesIncluding the mayor of the second largest city, Maracaibo. several regional opposition leaders and More than 100 children– Arrest warrants have been issued for several campaign leaders. Including Gonzalez’s national campaign manager. Request asylum At the residence of the Argentine Ambassador in Caracas. They are still there as well. Even though the government has cut off electricity and water. One of them was arrested. Local employees of the embassyIt has created a diplomatic and humanitarian crisis.
Maduro rants that Machado himself is a “terrorist” which is why she is hiding. But she remains convinced that support for Maduro is much weaker than previously thought. Many of the votes for Gonzalez came from different districts. of Venezuela that once supported Hugo Chavez, Maduro’s predecessor. and until recently continued to support Maduro himself. Local government officials quietly helped volunteers monitor the polls during the election. And not only officials: “We probably won’t be able to get the ballot count. Without the cooperation of the military,” Machado said, “they were ordered to remove our election observers from the polling center. And they didn’t follow those orders.” Election night brought more surprises. “There are hundreds of videos of soldiers watching as the results are read in real time and (soldiers) cheering, laughing, singing and screaming,” Machado said. “So they saw it. They bear witness to people coming together.”
This is, of course, what happened in Syria. in which supporters of the regime dissolved And it is not surprising that the police security guard And soldiers in Venezuela also have relatives who have been brutalized by the government. They are also fed up with deep corruption. They have also lived through 25 years of economic mismanagement. Their families are also impoverished by a regime whose leaders are under U.S. sanctions. and other countries Terrorism with drugs, corruption, and drug smuggling Machado predicts that “Assad leaving the country and leaving behind some of his closest allies” would create “grave concerns for some of the people who support Maduro right now.”
But the last major change has not yet occurred. Maduro has not relinquished power. Machado’s message to anyone who will listen is that outsiders can help. Venezuela’s next president is scheduled to take office on January 10. Gonzalez has said he plans to return to the country and take office. Venezuela’s interior minister appeared on television with handcuffs he said he would use to arrest Gonzalez. Machado believes that the United States along with Brazil, Colombia, Spain and the rest of the European Union. Can put pressure not only on Maduro But the people around him By making it clear that they would sever remaining ties with Venezuela if Maduro Break the law and take the oath of office after losing the vote. They can announce a new list of individual boycotts. and cut remaining contracts, including oil, Venezuela’s main export. She also thinks that the United States and other countries They can and should reveal what they know about the government’s criminal activities: “drug trafficking, money laundering, gold smuggling, and even women and human trafficking.” She believes there is still time for the Biden administration to speak up, and that the incoming Trump administration will have many opportunities to do the same.
Venezuelans aren’t the only ones to benefit. Venezuelan refugees appear throughout the surrounding region and on the U.S. border. Terrifying Alliance It’s not just Cuba, Venezuela’s longtime partner. But also Russia, China and Iran. Keep Maduro in power It also fuels instability and crime throughout the Western Hemisphere. This is despite the fact that there are clearly alternative politicians in this country. It has deep relationships with communities across the country.
Machado says the rebels have a plan. (If they win) that will “completely transform the relationship we have between citizens and the state.” All we know is that the state makes decisions for us. Now it will be reversed. We will give society the power to make its own decisions. and let the state be its servant”
That’s a vision that would feel utopian even in many democracies, but Machado believes it. And I think most Venezuelans do too. “I go all over the country and say, ‘I have nothing to offer but work.’ I have nothing to offer you but (Possibility) that we will work together And we will get this country back on its feet. So let’s do this right. And people cry and pray.” This is the opposite of populism: Instead of giving people simple solutions, Machado addresses complex problems that will not be solved for a long time. And at least some people listened.
