There is something very profound about the “Glory to the brave people”, a Venezuelan anthem, that makes its people move every time they sing it. Much more so on days like this Saturday, when stanzas like “down with chains” and “the poor man in his hut asked for freedom” resonated from east to west of the country and in corners of half the planet, where the eight million Creoles who fled from Chavismo live.
This October 22 already marks a new historical milestone of resistance and the fight for freedom thanks to the achievement of the opposition primaries, which exceeded all expectations. Self-managed elections that triumphed against all odds, against the abuses of the regime and against the friendly fire of those who are already playing to collaborate with the Bolivarian revolution. In short, people made the process their own to shout for change.
Popular enthusiasm transformed the difficulties into a citizen feat, which has reached the end thanks to the efforts of the National Primary Commission (CNP), with its president, Jesús María Casal, at the helm, and the persistence of Washington, which imposed as a sine qua non condition for the signing of the Barbados Accords between the government and the opposition.
If Nicolás Maduro wanted licenses to sell his oil at a better price, he was obliged to allow a process that has become a headache for Chavismo, given the direct criticism of the candidates and the growing popular fervor towards the conservative María Corina Machado. Social researchers and foreign agencies have been surprised by the enthusiasm that has been aroused in the most popular neighborhoods, where the leader of Vente Venezuela, always in pristine white, is compared to Commander Hugo Chávez who won his first elections in 1998.
In those same popular neighborhoods of Caracas, the interior of a country destroyed by Chavismo, in the cities spread throughout the world that already host eight million emigrants, the great diaspora of the planet. Even in Barinas, the cradle of the revolution that no longer wants revolution. “I have voted for change to end this dictatorship and be able to see our families back. To have the Venezuela that we love so much,” Erasmo Castillo, with three children outside the country, told EL MUNDO.
People came out everywhere to vote for change. “What I have been able to see throughout the country is extraordinary, it is unprecedented. Expectations fell short. I feel that this is a miracle,” acknowledged Machado, the only candidate with a chance to win. In fact, in the first count carried out in Sydney in Australia, he swept the votes against his rivals (183 to 1), especially the social democrat Carlos Prosperi, who threatened for days to withdraw due to the beating that was coming his way.
Everywhere Venezuelans came to vote despite the obstacles, despite the non-participation of the National Electoral Council (CNE) under Maduro’s control, knowing that 85% of the country wants change. And not only in the face of a Bolivarian revolution, but also in the face of traditional parties crushed by reality. The challenge was enormous, symbolized by the long lines.
“The democrats of Venezuela are happy today, people are coming out throughout the national territory,” said journalist Roland Carreño, released this week thanks to the Barbados Accords after three years without trial in the dungeons of Chavismo. His party, Voluntad Popular, led by Leopoldo López, withdrew its candidate to support Machado.
“Today a new legitimacy of origin is emerging. The country changed and many political actors did not see it coming. This event is going to have political consequences much greater than what we imagined just a few hours ago,” confessed political scientist Piero Trepiccione, close to the center of thought of the Jesuits.
Of course Chavismo tried until the last moment, it is in its essence. Paramilitaries threw tear gas bombs at polling stations and stole material at gunpoint, communal councils threatened the needy with taking away their subsidized bags of food, police intimidated those waiting in lines and ordered the removal of electoral material… Even the Syrian priest of the Orthodox parish of San Jorge, in the Caracas neighborhood of Montalbán, backed out at the last moment and left without the premises where the ballot boxes were going to be installed.
The people’s response measures the extent to which these primaries became a new act of resistance: the neighbors set up the electoral center in the nearest square with tables and chairs that they brought down from their homes.