Venezuelan opponent says her disqualification is a “boomerang” for Maduro

The opposition presidential candidate María Corina Machado assured this Tuesday that her disqualification from holding public office in Venezuela, announced last week by the pro-government Comptroller’s Office, is a “Boomerang” that will end up hurting the government.

“Nicolas MaduroYou are not the one who is going to choose the candidate who is going to face you and defeat you in the 2024 presidential elections.″, whipped Machadofrom the most radical wing of the opposition, nominated for the primaries that the rivals of the socialist ruler will hold in October in order to choose a candidate “unitary”.

“That candidate will be chosen by the people of Venezuela on October 22 in the primary elections. And we want to tell the international community to prepare for the defeat of Nicolás Maduro and the start of an orderly transition in the country.”, expressed the 55-year-old leader at a press conference, who ruled out abandoning the contest.

The Comptroller General reported last Friday that Machado was disqualified from holding public office for 15 years for alleged “administrative irregularities” when she was a deputy (2011-2014).

It was linked to “a plot of corruption“of the symbolic”interim government” of the opposition leader Juan Guaidó, recognized between January 2019 and January 2023 as president in charge of Venezuela by fifty governments that ignored Maduro’s re-election in 2018.

The disqualification imposed in 2015 was valid for one year, but the Comptroller’s Office said that it continued to investigate the former deputy in subsequent years.

“Much more than useless, this supposed disabling is a huge mistake. This has become a real boomerang for the regime and we are seeing the reactions inside and outside Venezuela”, he estimated Machado.

The United States, which maintains an old dispute with the Maduro government that includes financial sanctions and an embargo on Venezuelan oil, protested the measure against Machado. The disqualification was also criticized by the OAS and the leftist government of Colombia.

Various sectors within the highly divided opposition also expressed their solidarity with Machado.

The Comptroller’s office has already imposed identical sanctions against other leaders such as two-time presidential candidate Henrique Capriles and Guaidó, who fled to the United States in April.

Capriles is also a candidate in the primaries, as well as Freddy Superlano, disqualified after winning the governorship of Barinas (west) in 2021, the home state of the late socialist former president Hugo Chávez and until then governed by his family.

“With this they have achieved that the primaries become the first stage of the contest and defeat of Maduro. In this primary on October 22, Venezuelans are facing the regimeMachado said.

Source: AFP