Not a week has passed since the historic milestone of the Venezuelan primaries when the great winner of those elections, María Corina Machado, established as leader of the opposition, faces her first great test. Tarek William Saab, Chavista prosecutor, has summoned for this Monday, as investigators, the organizers of the elections, nearly fifty jurists and professors responsible for the self-managed democratic feat. At the head is Jesús María Casal, president of the National Primary Commission (CNP) and right-wing dean of the Andrés Bello Catholic University, who has become a popular hero today.
Among those persecuted by the revolution are also Mildred Camero, vice president of the CNP, and Roberto Abdul, director of the Súmate organization, which provided technical assistance to the process. The heads of the different regional boards will appear alongside them.
The accusation orchestrated by the revolutionary Public Ministry weighs against all of them, which seeks to accuse them of crimes of usurpation of functions, identity theft, money laundering and association to commit a crime.
“As soon as (the summons) arrives, I’ll go,” Camero responded after hearing the news.
The Chavista attack to try to mitigate the political phenomenon born after last Sunday’s citizen feat immediately provoked national and international solidarity with these jurists. Members of civil society have called to accompany those investigated before the Prosecutor’s Office. At the moment it is not public what strategy Machado will adopt, who received the credential as winner of the primaries from the CNP last Thursday.
“I condemn the harassment of the regime. Venezuela must vote in 2024 without disqualifications or persecutions and with strict compliance with what was agreed in Barbados,” said Luis Almagro, secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS).
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) rejected the criminal investigation against the organizers to insist that “the State must provide guarantees for political participation.” The United Nations has also called on Maduro to respect the political rights of Venezuelans.
In the Barbados Accords, signed last week between the Government and the opposition with the auspices of the United States, the right of each political actor to select a candidate for the presidential elections “freely and in accordance with their internal mechanisms” is established. One of Washington’s demands to Nicolás Maduro was that the organization of the former be allowed, which always had a sword of Damocles on it.
The CNP even requested technical assistance from the National Electoral Council (CNE), but it only responded months later and when the process was almost finished. None of the 10 political organizations that participated in the primaries presented complaints about irregularities or anomalies.
The maneuvers of the Bolivarian power to try to reduce the impact of Hurricane Machado, which obtained almost 93% of the votes in ballot boxes that were filled with 2.4 million ballots, have not only focused on judicial threats against jurists. Chavismo has also called a referendum for December 3 in which it will ask Venezuelans to rule on the Venezuelan identity of Essequibo, a territory in dispute with Guyana, something on which the entire country agrees.
Maduro also called a false Peace Conference to surround himself with collaborators and friendly businessmen and to accuse the opposition of mounting a strategy of violence. His Government has also expressly launched a Great Venezuela Women Mission, to simulate a feminist profile in its social policies, by having a female unitary candidate in front of it.
“Until now, the only thing that Madurismo is achieving is showing and confirming to Venezuelans and the international community why so many people voted in the opposition primaries. There is a country desperate to democratically emerge from this madness,” concluded the writer Alberto Tyszka barrier.
