Venezuela regime prevents Corina Yoris, substitute for María Corina Machado, from registering as presidential candidate

Venezuela’s Chavista regime has ended up choosing the opposition candidate. In the final stretch of a day of tension and negotiations, the moderate Enrique Márquez, linked to the Un Nuevo Tiempo (A New Time) party — which was initially going to support María Corina Machado and her successor, Corina Yoris — was able to register his own candidacy with another list called Centrados. This organization was annulled two weeks ago and readmitted again by the National Electoral Council (CNE). Meanwhile, Yoris was unable to formalize her own candidacy due to an alleged computer glitch on the electoral authority’s registration webpage.

The Unitary Platform is debating a possible replacement for Yoris, who was herself meant to be a replacement for Machado. It remains to be seen if the movement that Machado built in recent months will now coalesce around Enrique Márquez, who until last year sat on the National Electoral Council but was forced to resign, along with the entire governing body, to give way to a board entirely loyal to President Nicolás Maduro. Márquez, a moderate politician and negotiator, is unknown to most citizens.

His registration, which comes just as the candidates proposed by the Unitary Platform were unable to register, could ensure a position in the presidential race for a sector that is critical of Maduro. But it could also threaten to break the unity that the opposition had achieved. The last hours of the presidential candidacy registration period were fraught with suspense. The CNE used the “modern automated system” that it frequently boasts about to block and readmit parties at will, citing “technical failures” as part of a political game that seeks to forestall any possibility that Nicolás Maduro, who is rejected by 80% of the population, might lose an election scheduled for July 28.

An extension to the application period was ruled out. In addition to the Democratic Unity Roundtable and Un Nuevo Tiempo, the Ecological Movement of Venezuela and the dissidents of the Communist Party of Venezuela were also left out of the process, as was Fuerza Vecinal. The outcome is not yet definitive, at least on paper, since the authorities still need to formally admit the candidates and a process of challenges is also opening up in which everything could still change. There are still four months of struggle to go until the elections.

Henrique Capriles, who intended to be a candidate last year, warned the opposition leaders about the need to make decisions so as not to be left out of the race. “You have to have the strength to make unfair but inevitable decisions. We must ensure that the country has an option in order to be able to vote.”

María Corina Machado waited until last Friday to see if her disqualification, issued by the Supreme Court in a ruling considered unconstitutional, would be lifted in time for her to register. That same day she announced her substitute in agreement with the parties that support her and which are integrated into the Unitary Platform. Corina Yoris, with no history in public administration and no weakness that could be legally used to veto her, assumed responsibility for the nomination. But Chavismo has still prevented it.

On the other hand, nine other candidates from a section of the opposition that coexists with Chavismo were able to complete the process. Several of these candidates come from parties that have been judicially intervened in the past to ensure its leaders are compatible with Chavismo. One example is Voluntad Popular (Popular Will), which registered Daniel Ceballos; another is Democratic Action, which registered Luis Eduardo Fernández.

For its nomination of Maduro, the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) organized a rally in downtown Caracas with supporters from all over the country. Grassroots members of the PSUV, led by the national leadership of the party — with the first lady, Cilia Flores, Diosdado Cabello and the siblings Jorge and Delcy Rodríguez, Rafal Lacava and Héctor Rodríguez at the forefront — walked over to CNE headquarters.

As the president-candidate, Maduro walked down a red carpet and into the CNE building, located in the El Silencio Towers in the center of the city. Wearing a sporty outfit, and showing off a poster with photos of Simón Bolívar and former president Hugo Chávez, he was received by the organization’s board of directors, headed by his personal friend Elvis Amoroso, who informed the president of the number of registered candidates.

In front of the election authorities, Maduro was presented by Diosdado Cabello, first vice president of the party and number two man of the Chavista regime, who delivered to officials the form nominating Maduro as the PSUV’s candidate. He entrusted the current president with “the destiny of the country,” and expressed certainty that “he will never disappoint the Venezuelan people.”

Taking the floor and thanking Cabello, Maduro gave a speech designed for the party faithful in which the figure of Hugo Chávez was exalted, emphasis was placed on the struggle of these last few years to preserve the independence of the nation, and harsh comments were made against his enemies from “the oligarchy and the surnames,” as Maduro often refers to the Venezuelan opposition.

“With or without you, we are going to hold elections this July 28,” Maduro told his adversaries, just as he did in 2018. The Venezuelan leader later gave another speech in Plaza Diego Ibarra, where he also denounced an assassination attempt. “Today two men with weapons who intended to attack me were captured. They have already declared that they are part of the far-right fascist party Vente Venezuela.“ Prosecutors said these individuals were detained near the presidential stage and that they are being accused of terrorism, attempted assassination and illicit possession of a firearm, among other charges.

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