This move permanently excluded opposition leader María Corina Machado from the election campaign in Venezuela. The winner of the October primaries was unable to escape the disqualification imposed by the regime Nicolas Maduro and agreed with the opposition parties who have the power to register candidates for the teacher’s nomination Corina Yoris. But the government also did not allow registration without legal reasons.
On Monday evening, after the deadline, the governor of Zulia, Manuel Rosales, registered as a candidate of his party Un Nuevo Tiempo, belonging to the same opposition platform. Yesterday, Machado refused to endorse him, describing the candidacy process as “crude.” “My candidate is Corina Yoris,” he emphasized. He stressed that “disappointments and betrayals become lessons to be followed” and that there are political actions that ignore “the mandate” that emerged from the primaries. “We will not abandon the electoral path,” he noted, saying decisions on support would be made “day by day.”
Rosales, 71, said he tried to register Yoris “until the last minute,” but given the disability, he decided to write down his name. “I am not coming to replace anyone or to remove leadership. “I come to rebuild Venezuela without hate,” emphasized the governor of the oil tanker Zulia State. “We are not surrendering to Maduro.”
Rosales, one of the 12 current candidates, already competed for the Venezuelan presidency against Hugo Chávez in 2006, when he gained just 20%, at a time when the late “commander” was at his peak.
The focus of his political career was Zulia. There he was mayor of the capital Maracaibo twice and then governor until he had to flee into exile in 2009, accused by Chávez of conspiracy. The first position was inherited by his wife Eveling Trejo and the governorship was taken over by his dolphin Pablo. Pérez, both for the election victory as representatives of Rosales.
After six years in exile in Peru, returned to the country and was imprisoned in 2015. He was released and the political disqualification against him for corruption was lifted in 2017 thanks to a negotiation with Chavismo. He then ran again for governor of Zulia after opposition leader Juan Pablo Guanipa won the elections, but did not take office due to obstacles from the government itself. Lost. He tried again in 2021 and won. His party is the only one in the opposition alliance that has not been subject to legal intervention or annulled by the electoral authorities. It falls into the line of moderate social democracy. He did not participate in the opposition primaries, but recognized Machado’s victory.
This Tuesday, Rosales recognized Machado but said that his party would neither choose to abstain nor miss the opportunity to offer voters an alternative. Machado had already warned an hour earlier that “what we had been warning about for many months was happening: the regime was choosing its candidates.”
The former returning officer also appears alongside Maduro and Rosales Enrique Marquezwhich was part of the unified platform but now calls itself independent, along with nine other candidates who present themselves as anti-Chavistasdespite being branded by the traditional opposition as “collaborators” of the ruling party.