One of the favorite pre-candidates for the presidential elections scheduled for 2024 in Venezuela, María Corina Machado, from the most radical wing of the opposition, was disqualified from holding public office for 15 years, according to an official letter from the Comptroller General released yesterday Friday.
The text of the Comptroller’s Office, which has ordered the disqualification of an extensive list of opponents, including the two-time presidential candidate Henrique Capriles, as well as Juan Guaidó, who fled to the United States in April, was read by the deputy José Brito, who requested Machado’s “status” on June 26.
“I fulfill the duty to inform you that the citizen María Corina Machado Parisca (…) was imposed the sanction of disqualification from the exercise of any public office (…) on July 13, 2015” for a period 15 years old, reviews the official letter read by Brito before journalists.
According to the Comptroller’s Office, Machado’s disqualification is based on “administrative irregularities” when she was a deputy (2011-2014).
In principle, the disqualification imposed in 2015 was valid for one year. The increase in the penalty was not explained.
Machado is also accused of having participated in “a corruption plot” headed by Guaidó, recognized between January 2019 and January 2023 as president in charge of Venezuela by fifty governments that ignored the re-election of President Nicolás Maduro in 2018 by call it “fraudulent”.
outburst
“This last outburst, it was what we already knew, nobody is surprised, that was coming, but if they believe or thought that this farce of disqualification was going to discourage participation in the primaries, they should prepare, because if we went strong, now we are going more forcefully,” Machado said during a political act.
“Now we are going with more enthusiasm,” stressed the leader, referring to the primaries organized by the opposition for October 22.
The Comptroller’s decision generated rejection in the Organization of American States (OAS), to which Venezuela ceased to belong in 2019. “The regime resorts to disqualifications and proscriptions to cling to power,” he said.
The Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, also added to the questions, pointing out that “no administrative authority should take away political rights from any citizen.”
SOLIDARITY
Several opposition sectors expressed their solidarity with Machado after rejecting the decision. Capriles, disabled since 2017 for 15 years and also registered in the opposition primaries, considered the measure “unconstitutional, unfounded and shameful.”
“This disqualification, like ours and that of other opposition leaders, is illegitimate, unjustified and above all unconstitutional. Maduro and the institutions he controls follow the worst path of designing an election that will only bring more economic, social and political crisis.” , Capriles wrote on Twitter.