Venezuelans are called to vote on July 28 in an election that, for the first time in 25 years, raises expectations of real change. Chavismo, led by President Nicolás Maduro, arrives at the meeting punished by wear and tear, according to the vast majority of the polls, while the opposition, headed by Edmundo González Urrutia, aspires to the climate of change of direction that breathes in the country is realized at the polls. The most popular politician in Venezuela, María Corina Machado, could not run due to having been disqualified by the electoral authority, although her popularity and her prominence in the campaign have made her the main driving force of the anti-Chavista candidacy.
At the same time, the international community is working to get the parties to sign a document committing themselves to accepting the result. But the country faces the vote in an atmosphere of maximum tension. Former Argentine President Alberto Fernández assured this Wednesday that the Government asked him to suspend his trip as an observer. On Tuesday, Fernández had joined Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and called on Maduro to accept the result if he suffers a defeat. “If he is defeated, what he has to do is accept,” he said.
The unitary candidate Edmundo González has just dispelled one of the great concerns of the Venezuelan opposition just five days before the presidential elections. "We have managed, thanks to our volunteers, to obtain the credentials of all the witnesses who will be at the 30,026 polling stations throughout the country," he announced through the social network X. Yesterday the lawyer for González's campaign command, Perkyns Rocha, denounced that around 60,000 witnesses had not been able to be accredited on the platform of the National Electoral Council due to technical problems that raised all the alarms.
Also a member of the opposition command, Delsa Solórzano, addressed a complaint to the authorities of the electoral body to resolve the obstacle in the process as soon as possible. With reduced international observation, concentrated in the Carter Center, the UN delegation and some governments in the region, the role of witnesses is crucial to guarantee the vote.
The president of the National Electoral Council (CNE), Elvis Amoroso, denounced the financing of international media by drug trafficking to "hinder the elections." "I denounce the media campaign, paid for with dirty money, money from drug trafficking, money that has been stolen from you Venezuelans, the gold that has been taken from us. The Citgo oil company there in the United States was stolen from us and that money is using foreign media to apply a campaign of destruction against the people of Venezuela and seeking to hinder these elections," he said since the activation of the Republic Plan in Caracas.
The former Argentine president, Alberto Fernández, denounced that the government of Nicolás Maduro asked him not to travel as an observer in Sunday's elections. "Yesterday, the Venezuelan national government conveyed to me its desire that I not travel and desist from fulfilling the task that had been entrusted to me by the National Electoral Council," he wrote in X. This, due to the statements that the former president gave yesterday on the Argentine station Radio Con Vos 89.9 FM, where he assured that if President Maduro loses, he must accept his departure. "If he is defeated, what he has to do is accept. As Lula said: he who wins, wins. And he who loses, loses. Period, it's over. That's democracy," he said in the radio interview.
Maduro assured this Tuesday that the warning that there will be a "bloodbath" in the Caribbean nation if it loses the presidential elections on July 28 was a "reflection" and - he added - that if anyone was scared by this statement "take a chamomile." "I didn't tell lies, I just made a reflection. Anyone who was scared should take a chamomile because these people of Venezuela are cured of fear and know what I'm saying," said the president at a campaign event broadcast on the state channel. VTV.
In a report in The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), journalist Kejal Vyas assured that some American oil businessmen see "the regime" of Nicolás Maduro as a more stable option for investment, because it controls "from the courts to the army." Vyas maintains that businessmen have engaged in indirect talks with Maduro in the last year and have pressured Joe Biden's administration to lift economic sanctions. "If the opposition wins, Venezuela risks descending into chaos, dashing hopes of restoring the country as one of the world's leading oil suppliers," US businessmen tell the WSJ.
The president and candidate for a third term, Nicolás Maduro Moros, assured that he will recognize the electoral results next Sunday, where he will face Edmundo González Urrutia and eight other opponents. "Rain, shine or lightning, on Sunday there are free elections in Venezuela and we will recognize and defend the results," he said at a political rally. In addition, Maduro Moros assured that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and "savage capitalism" will not return to the country.
