The National Commission of Primaries in Venezuela has marked October 22 in blue, the day scheduled for citizens to choose who will face Nicolás Maduro in the 2024 presidential elections. A process marked by uncertainties, unknowns and a certainty: the revolution has no no intention of abandoning the supreme power of the oil country. EL MUNDO details who the main opposition candidates are today.
“2024 is a unique opportunity.” Thanks to an acrobatic pro-electoral turn, the right-wing and radical leader starts as the main favorite in the polls. Her main virtue is that she has stayed away from the opposition power leadership, which she has attacked as harshly as the revolution itself. That anti-establishment status gives Machado (55 years old) a good chance of succeeding in October amid the opposition’s decline, despite the fact that he already failed in the 2012 nomination against Capriles.
His fervent closeness to Donald Trump does not penalize him at the moment, although in his past his signature appears on the historic Carmonazo, a decree against the Constitution that made the coup against Hugo Chávez fail in 2002.
“I haven’t gone out to warm my arm yet.” The former presidential candidate (50) used a baseball simile, the pitcher who trains before entering the game, to make it clear that he is in the electoral battle and that he intends to win it, as he already did in the 2012 primaries. The former governor of Miranda already lost to Chávez in 2012 (Chavismo spent 70 billion dollars for the dying leader to win again at the polls) and to Maduro in 2013, in highly controversial elections riddled with revolutionary tricks. And it is precisely his reaction to that fraudulent defeat by avoiding (“I wanted to avoid a civil war”) one of the main accusations against him.
In addition, Capriles is disabled, like so many others, and must first defeat his fellow Primero Justicia (PJ) to compete in the October primaries. Eternally at odds with Leopoldo López, he has also lashed out fiercely against the presidency in charge.
“I am not going to leave the Venezuelans alone.” Despite the fact that Guaidó (39) has not yet proclaimed his candidacy for the primaries for Voluntad Popular (VP), he himself has slipped it in different interventions. The former president in charge, beaten in December by the new opposition majority after four years in office, also suffers political disqualification, which will not prevent him from participating in the primaries. Another story will be next year.
The controversial action of the government in charge does not favor him in the first polls, although he is determined to tour the entire country despite the government’s threats.
“I am finishing a book called Land of Owners, I believe in that and not in a country of beggars.” Erconde del Guácharo, this is how this successful comedian is known, also a businessman, who applied, in advance and by rickshaw, for the opposition primaries as an independent. Rausseo (62) already failed in his first attempt to be president in 2006 and only obtained 4% support in a subsequent regional contest.
On this occasion, the polls predict an upward trend for this anti-political outsider (Datanalisis gives him 30% support at this time), which some see as the Venezuelan Zelenski but others consider a Trojan Horse of Chavismo. . “I ask for respect for my candidate,” Maduro ironized from his media chair.
“It is time to end international sanctions.” The opposition governor of Zulia has not yet announced his candidacy, but he points as another of his favorites, despite his resounding defeat against Chávez in 2006.
Leader of the Social Christian Un Nuevo Tiempo (UNT), Rosales (70) champions a kind of cohabitation with the revolution, which has led him to meet Maduro in different circumstances. Who was also the mayor of Maracaibo was a political prisoner and was disqualified, but he won the pardon of Chavismo.
“We continue to walk together with our people.” The presidential candidate of the social democrat Acción Democrática (AD) has been touring the country for months thanks to the powerful structure of the party of Carlos Andrés Pérez. Various dialectical slips and controversies on gender and diversity issues limit him for the moment in the polls.
“Venezuela is ready to be led by a woman.” The leader of Encuentro Ciudadano has based part of her political career on defending human rights. During the interim presidency, Solórzano (51) also became one of Guaidó’s supporters.
“Let’s go for a dignified Venezuela.” The progressive leader of La Causa R (69) already knows what an electoral robbery is: they took away the victory for the governorship of Bolívar and handed it over to a general, because that border territory with Brazil is strategic due to its gold mines and diamonds.
“We will assume a Bukele-style policy to bring order to the country.” The Christian Democrat leader (65) bets on the strong hand of the Salvadoran president, who has many followers on the continent.
“We are a single Venezuela that cries out for change.” The mayor of the Caracas municipality of El Hatillo (36) is the favorite to head the list of Fuerza Vecinal, a recently created opposition group backed by one of the strongest companies in the country.
The first mayor of Chacao, Gustavo Duque, also has options.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
