“Something unprecedented is happening in Venezuela” – L’Express

2023-10-21 07:30:00

A prominent personality in Venezuela, María Corina Machado, 56, is the big favorite of the opposition primaries, organized in heroic conditions on Sunday October 22, despite the multiple obstacles posed by the power in place. Persecuted by the latter, the engineer was one of the first to fight the regime of Hugo Chávez, transformed into tyranny under Nicolás Maduro. And this, without ever compromising with the government, which, over the years, has become a master in the art of dividing the opposition, sometimes by buying its leaders.

Here is this “iron lady” carried by an unprecedented popular movement of the working classes who want to put an end to the corruption and violence of a regime which imprisons, tortures, starves and pushes its inhabitants into exile. If the elections were free and transparent, that of “María Corina” in the 2024 presidential election (no date has yet been set for the vote) would not be in doubt as her popularity is massive and Maduro’s unpopularity is blatant. Until then, the candidate of the Vente movement (“Come!”), who has been traveling the country by car for years – the regime forbids her from getting on a plane -, must win the opposition primary, the first stage before the reconquest of democracy next year.

The crowd came to cheer María Corina Machado, leader of Vente, the main opposition party to the Maduro regime, in Maturín, in the state of Monagas, during the campaign for the primary on October 22, 2023.

© / Maria Corina Machado Press

A few days before the election, she gave an interview to L’Express, which we are publishing in two parts. The first focused in particular on Venezuela’s links with Iran and with the pro-Iranian movement Hezbollah, which has interfered in the country and uses it as a bridgehead in the heart of the Americas as part of a Caracas axis -Havana-Moscow-Tehran. Here is the second part of this exclusive interview, devoted to Venezuelan domestic politics.

L’Express: What does the popular momentum around your candidacy for the opposition primary on October 22 mean?

María Corina Machado: Something unprecedented is happening in Venezuela. At the start of the year, the company still seemed extinct and demoralized. Outside observers believed that Venezuelans had resigned themselves to tyranny. Then the people woke up. It’s an incredible transformation. In the twenty-four years that I have been fighting for freedom, I have never seen such a social movement: it started from the rural world and the humblest social classes, then it gained momentum to spread to the middle class. , cities and the capital, Caracas. I have always trusted in the Venezuelan people’s love of freedom. But what has happened in the last ten months is beyond anything I have experienced in the past.

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What does this phenomenon mean?

A deep desire for change. People want to turn their backs on socialism and corruption, which has ravaged the country for a quarter of a century. Chávez and Maduro ruined Venezuela while establishing tyranny. From the richest country in the region, it has become the poorest. They caused an exodus of Dantesque dimensions. A quarter of Venezuelans have emigrated over the past ten years. It’s as if France lost 15 million of its inhabitants in a decade! No family is spared.

Many grandparents only know their grandchildren through WhatsApp. They would like to kiss them, touch them, see them grow. People come to talk to me to tell me that all their friends have gone abroad and that only them are left. There is a desire to return to normal. This goes beyond politics, it is existential. This is why this movement is so powerful – and difficult to grasp, from the outside. I travel the country by car (the regime has banned me from getting on a plane), I go everywhere, I talk to all the Venezuelans (which is not the case with Maduro). I see how people have managed to escape from fear.

The regime now finds it difficult to exercise social control through food and the household basket. Until now, the regime threatened to withdraw their ration books and the 20 dollars a month from mothers who refrained from denouncing the sympathizers of María Corina Machado – me, that is. Because, yes, Chávez and Maduro have set up a network of informers – according to the Cuban model of the committees for the defense of the revolution, or CDR – with “street leaders”, “Chavista battle units”, etc.

Much less than before. Women tell me: “But, María Corina, they have already taken my children from me, forced them to leave the country… What more do you want them to take from me?” People are no longer afraid, that’s what has changed. And everyone senses that the current political sequence represents for them the last chance they have to change the course of History.

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How do you assess the unpopularity of power? It is said that Nicolás Maduro would only receive 8% of favorable opinions…

Chavismo is at the bottom of the hole. He is going through the worst hours in his history. The regime has lost the popular base on which it relied. No one believes the words of Maduro and his entourage anymore. Disillusionment even affects the interior of the system, including the repressive system. The military and the police experience the same difficulties as the rest of society. Many of them encourage me, even though they were ordered to put obstacles in my way.

A Chavista governor recently urged the population to attack you with fists if you approached his region. Are you afraid for your life?

All people who live in Venezuela fear for their lives, my case is no different from others. It is also true that the regime is doing everything to complicate my life. I was physically attacked several times. Ten years ago, in the precincts of Parliament, a Chavista elected official beat me until I bled and broke my face in five places. These days are softer, because my popularity protects me. However, the harassment is constant. During a recent end-of-campaign rally, my convoy was stopped by the police, who cut off the main highway to prevent it from reaching our destination. So we took another road… which was also blocked.

“The problem of malnutrition is so acute [que] schoolchildren suffer from a growth deficit of 5 centimeters for boys and 8 centimeters for girls! [Et] they only have classes two days a week: the teachers’ salary amounts to 1 dollar per day, so they seek to earn their living elsewhere, with the blessing of the government”, complains María Corina Machado.

© / Maria Corina Machado Press

Another example: the other day, the tax authorities arrived at the hotel where I had spent a night and had the establishment temporarily closed to punish its owner. The same thing happened with a restaurant where I stopped to eat. The same goes for the owner of the sound truck rented for my meetings: the police showed up at his house, arrested him, imprisoned him and seized his vehicle. The regime seeks to terrorize all those who speak out or demonstrate against it, directly or indirectly.

“The regime, in dire straits, cannot win the presidential election on a regular basis”

Shamelessly, they also attack the families of opposition activists. For them, anything is good to scare. But it doesn’t work anymore. On the contrary, these crude methods show how desperate the regime is. Maduro and his people already know that they will not be able to win the 2024 presidential election on a regular basis.

The regime accuses you of being a representative of the bourgeoisie, of the elite…

It seems that this is not the opinion of the majority of the population… In any case, I do not believe in this way of opposing whites and blacks, rich and poor, right and left. We are no longer there. The policy of polarization, stigmatization and division maintained by those in power for so many years no longer works. We are Venezuelans, period. It is this desire for union that is positive. And which allows us to believe that our compatriots in exile will one day return to our country.

What is the objective of the opposition primary on October 22?

The moment is important, because the opposition has experienced a crisis of representativeness for several years. And for many reasons, including his own mistakes. At some point, the population, but also the international community, lost confidence in the opposition. It was essential to renew the leadership, but not in a way imposed by the top of the political parties, nor by the international community, and even less by the regime itself – which, in the past, has not deprived itself of weaken the opposition by manipulating some of its leaders.

“Hunger affects 4 out of 5 Venezuelans”

The simple fact that the primary is taking place despite all the intimidation and sabotage we have suffered is already an accomplishment. This popular primary will mark a turning point. It is the first step before the defeat of Nicolás Maduro next year and the return to democracy.

Aren’t you too optimistic? Neither Russia, nor Iran, nor Cuba, nor China will ever abandon the geostrategic position that their allies Chávez and Maduro allowed them to acquire, so close to the United States.

In your equation, you forget one little thing: people. But people exist, and that matters. Venezuelans are once again ready to defend their freedom and democracy, so that their children can return home. We are on the eve of a primary that everyone thought impossible. It will take place and it will be a huge success.

What will be your program if you come to power in 2024?

In Venezuela, institutions have disappeared. Nothing remains of it. Everything was trashed. Justice, education, health, national sovereignty, security, etc. Nothing is left. In addition, the humanitarian crisis is terrible and unprecedented. Our poverty indices are comparable to those of a post-war country. The worst is hunger. It affects 4 out of 5 Venezuelans. The problem of malnutrition is so acute that currently schoolchildren suffer from a growth deficit of 5 centimeters for boys and 8 centimeters for girls! Furthermore, they only have classes two days a week, because the teachers’ salary is 1 dollar per day. The latter therefore seek to earn their living elsewhere, with the blessing of the government.

“I will privatize the national oil company PDVSA. There is no choice”

In power, I should therefore first respond to the humanitarian emergency by prioritizing the most vulnerable: children, the elderly, pregnant women. It will also be necessary to revive the economy. To do this, institutions and the law must be restored, a sine qua non condition for reassuring and attracting foreign investors. The national oil company PDVSA [Petróleos de Venezuela] will be privatized. There is no other choice.

Finally, I will open markets to attract international investors in the energy sectors, whether oil, gas, hydroelectric, solar or wind. In the Americas, there is no better potential supplier for the United States, both reliable and competitive, in terms of energy. The profile of heavy oil located in the Orinoco region of Venezuela corresponds exactly to the system of refineries existing in the United States, which, by their proximity, are the natural outlet for our black gold.

But nothing will recover as long as Maduro is in power. What serious international company would want to invest billions of dollars in the industry of a country which is one of the last in the world in terms of legal security? According to the NGO The World Justice Project, Venezuela even ranks last in this area. In the meantime, the looting continues: in 2023 alone, 23 billion dollars have disappeared from PDVSA coffers. This has to stop, and Venezuelans know it.