2024-02-18 00:03:59
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who is expected to seek a third term in this year’s presidential election, assured thousands of supporters in Caracas on Sunday that “the people in power” will win. “by hook or by crook.”
“We are the people in power (…). “We are going to win by hook or by crook,” Maduro, dressed in a red shirt, told thousands of people celebrating the 32nd anniversary of the failed February 4, 1992 coup against former President Hugo Chávez (1999). -2013), of whom Maduro is the designated successor.
“When they give it to us, however they give it to us (the elections), the people (are) organized to win,” said Maduro, while the president of Parliament, Jorge Rodriguez, summoned political and social actors on Monday civil to decide the date of the presidential elections.
Symbolically, Maduro invited Rodríguez to the stage and highlighted that “he responded strongly to the gringos” (Americans) about the ineligibility of the main contender, María Corina Machado, and regarding the date of the elections.
Under an October agreement signed in Barbados between the government and the opposition, elections were to be held in the second half of 2024 with the presence of international observers.
Additionally, the courts should allow potential candidates like Machado to appeal their ineligibility. However, last week the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) confirmed his disqualification, particularly for “treason” for having supported US sanctions.
As a result, the United States announced that in April it would reinstate sanctions on oil and gas that it had suspended following the Barbados agreement.
“The meeting called for tomorrow (Monday) by the regime ignores the commitment it signed in favor of free and fair elections in the Barbados agreement,” Machado reacted on Sunday through government of wanting to “wash its face by compromising, through threats and blackmail, institutions and people.”
Machado, who handily won the opposition primaries in October 2023, cannot run for the moment.
The “4F” (February 4) is usually considered the anniversary of Chavismo. Hugo Chávez, a young officer with socialist ideas, tried in vain to overthrow President Carlos Andrés Pérez and before going to prison he said: “for now, the objectives we set for ourselves have not been achieved.” Seven years later, he came to power at the polls.