Advantage, division, scarcity: Venezuela’s electoral ingredients concentrated in one state

A gigantic Chavismo campaign with resources from the Venezuelan state in the face of a divided opposition, also hit by the lack of gasoline and insecurity: the border state of Táchira sums up well all the ingredients that make up Sunday’s elections for mayors and governors.

Venezuelans will elect 23 governors and 335 mayors, in addition to municipal and regional legislators, in a process that will have the observation of the European Union after 15 years.

“Let’s love Táchira”: The slogan is painted on walls everywhere in both rural and urban areas. It is used by the illegitimate regime of Nicolás Maduro to accompany public works, but also the campaign of Freddy Bernal, candidate for governor for the governmental Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).

State or campaign? The confusion of roles annoys Fernando Andrade, candidate for the Unity platform, which concentrates the main political parties and who denounces the use of public resources for partisan purposes.

“You don’t live with paint”

Three candidates dispute this strategic state of 1.3 million inhabitants, bordering Colombia and mainly agricultural.

In addition to Bernal, 59, and Andrade, 40, is the current governor, Laidy Gómez, 39 and marginalized from the main opposition parties who accuse her of bowing to Chavismo when she was sworn in before the Constituent Assembly that created Chavismo to ignore to the Congress that was controlled by the opposition.

And although she is accused of being a collaborator, she never governed overshadowed by the figure of “protector”, A parallel authority that Maduro created in the states governed by the opposition and to which he gave all the resources.

The protector in Táchira? Bernal, who is also a deputy and was previously a minister and mayor of Caracas: an important leader within Chavismo at the national level.

“If we have done all this solely as a protector, imagine the transformation of this state as governor”, Launches Bernal, who rejects the opposition’s criticism of mixing campaign with public works, while inaugurating a bridge in Cárdenas, near the capital San Cristóbal.

“I’m working”, dice. “Anyone who feels defeated starts looking for excuses.”

The speaker sounds the “Freddy, Táchira celebrates you because you are the man who works for her”Of your campaign.

Bernal denounces the “indolence”By Governor Gómez, elected with 63.2% of the vote in 2017. Táchira was also the scene of impressive demonstrations against Maduro that year and then in 2019.

“I’m going to vote for Freddy Bernal ”, assures Yudith Galviz, a neighbor of Cárdenas. “The community needs it.”

“With scoundrels nothing is built”, For his part, Rómulo Uzcátegui criticizes, who protests against these works because according to him they are“pure paint”. “And you can’t live with paint ”.

“Live on alms”

Andrade travels the quiet streets of the small town of Ureña with two trucks and some motorcycles.

Sitting in a reclining chair with his wife, José Games, 66, comments that he will vote for the opposition to “get off this roll (problem)”, In reference to the economic crisis that has hit the country since 2013, with hyperinflation that wiped out purchasing power.

“I am retired, I earn 7 bolivars per month [menos de US$ 2], they put us to live on alms”.

Andrade wants to believe in a victory despite the “unequal fight”Against Bernal.

It says, for example, that it pays US $ 1 per liter to supply gasoline, which is often smuggled from Colombia, while the official campaign has access to subsidized fuel at US $ 0.05.

He also complains about the limited coverage he receives in the media, often under pressure from the government itself.

Another obstacle, he explains, is insecurity. In addition to drug trafficking and criminal gangs that force traffic restrictions at night, Andrade assures that he does not have access to some municipalities that are allegedly controlled by the Colombian guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (ELN).

Although she considers that her main problem is Laidy Gómez, whom she describes as the candidate “that betrayed the opposition and is playing the game of the Maduro regime ”. “It is not from the opposition”He insists.

Gomez promises on Twitter “defeat the regime”And under the slogan“Táchira is my fight”Has promoted a particular campaign that includes hair and makeup sessions, as well as popular pots.

But Eder Torres, manager of a telephone store, sees an opposition victory as difficult, despite the fact that Táchira “it is a very oppositional state”. “Laidy subtracts voices from the opposition … (Her candidacy) is a government strategy to remove votes”.