Opposition presidential candidate Maria Corina Machado.
Caracas.- Opposition presidential candidate María Corina Machado vowed this Tuesday to be disqualified from public office in Venezuela, announced last week by the pro-government comptroller’s office, a damaging “boomerang” for the government.
“Nicolás Maduro, you are not going to choose a candidate who is going to face you and defeat you in the 2024 presidential election,” said Machado, a radical wing of the opposition who is running in a rival primary. The Socialist ruler will be held in October to select a “unity” candidate.
“That candidate will be elected by the Venezuelan people in the primaries on October 22nd. “We want to tell the international community to prepare for the defeat of Nicolás Maduro and to start an orderly transition in the country,” the 55-year-old leader told a news conference, ruling out abandoning the race.
The Comptroller General announced last Friday that Machado was disqualified from public office for 15 years for allegedly committing “administrative malpractices” while serving as vice president (2011-2014).
It was linked to the “corruption coup” of opposition leader Juan Guaidó’s symbolic “interim government”, recognized as Venezuela’s president between January 2019 and January 2023 by the fifty governments that boycotted Maduro’s re-election in 2018.
The disqualification imposed in 2015 was valid for one year, but the comptroller’s office said it continued to investigate the former vice chancellor in subsequent years.
“Rather than ineffective, this disqualification is a big mistake. It has become a real boomerang for the regime, and we are seeing repercussions inside and outside Venezuela,” Machado assessed.
The US, which has long-standing disputes with Maduro’s government that include financial sanctions and an embargo on Venezuelan oil, has opposed the move against Machado. The disqualification was criticized by the OAS and Colombia’s leftist government.
Various sectors within the highly divided opposition also expressed their solidarity with Machado.
The comptroller’s office has already imposed similar sanctions against other leaders, such as Henrique Gabriels, a two-time presidential candidate, and Quito, who fled to the United States in April.
In 2021, after winning the governorship of Barinas (West), the home state of the late Socialist former president Hugo Chávez, and until then governed by his family, Gabrielas is a candidate in the primaries, as is Freddy Superlano.
“Through this they were able to turn the primaries into the first stage of Maduro’s contest and defeat. “In this preliminary round on October 22, the Venezuelan people are facing the regime,” Machado said.
