MEXICO CITY, March 16, (AP): It’s her choice - but one on which the hopes of millions of Venezuelans fighting to restore their democracy depends.
Barred from running for office, opposition leader María Corina Machado is facing pressure from foreign leaders and fellow government opponents to abandon her dead-end presidential candidacy ahead of a March 25 candidate registration deadline and make space for a substitute to take on the entrenched incumbent, Nicolás Maduro.
It's an impossible choice that underlines Venezuela’s increasingly authoritarian tilt. The last election widely recognized as meeting international standards took place almost a decade ago, when the opposition swept control of the National Assembly in 2015. But the opposition's boycotting of subsequent races has only strengthened Maduro’s grip on power.
Machado, a former lawmaker, rose to the top of the opposition leadership in 2023, filling a void left when other leaders went into exile. Her courage and principled attack on government corruption and Maduro’s mismanagement of the oil-dependent economy rallied millions of Venezuelans to overwhelmingly vote for her in an October opposition primary that the government tried to outlaw.
Success made her a target though. In January, in defiance of an electoral agreement Maduro signed with an opposition coalition, which earned him relief from US economic sanctions, Venezuela's rubber-stamping high court affirmed Machado's ban on holding office.
Maduro’s government has since also accused Washington of conspiring to assassinate him, arrested more political opponents and expelled the staff of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Taken together, the actions indicate Maduro has no interest in a competitive race and is looking only to extend his decade-long rule, said Michael McKinley, who served as US ambassador to Afghanistan, Brazil, Colombia and Peru.
"We’re no longer dealing with an imperfect electoral process,” McKinley said. "It’s a complete shutdown of all meaningful challenges to Maduro. In that context, it’s hard to argue that the opposition participating in elections without Machado and with a token candidate somehow advances a democratic opening.”