2023-06-17 22:02:33
The Chavista regime is radicalized. Nicolas Maduro He is seeking his second re-election with a tailor-made National Electoral Council (CNE) controlled by his wife Cilia Flores, who, together with her colleagues from the parliamentary committee, will elect the new members of the electoral body.
The first lady does not hide that she controls the reins of the CNE and from there she will do everything possible to perpetuate her husband in power.
In an illegal, unconstitutional and timeless manner, the Chavista National Assembly (AN) elected in 2020, not recognized by the opposition or a large part of the international community, decided with a single stroke of the pen dissolve the CNE last week, that he had only been in office for two years with 3 Chavista members and two linked to the opposition, and appoint a new one in his image and likeness.
Thus, the president of the AN (unicameral Parliament) Jorge Rodríguez announced that the selection committee for the new rectors of the electoral body will be made up of Cilia Flores, Desiree Santos Amaral, José Gregorio Correa, Giuseppe Alessandrello, Didalco Bolívar, José Villaroel, Luis Augusto Romero, Miguel Salazar Rodríguez and Ricardo Sánchez.
And the candidate to preside over the new Chavista CNE would be none other than military deputy Francisco Ameliach, according to pro-government journalist Vladimir Villegas.
General Ameliach was a companion of the military coup given by Army Lieutenant Colonel Hugo Chávez in 1992.
The power in the shadows
The first lady Cilia Flores, who pulls the strings of power behind the scenes, no longer hides her intention to perpetuate herself in Miraflores with her husband by changing the electoral entity as if it were her property.
Their relatives, known as the “narco nephews” of the Clan de los Flores, were sentenced to 17 years in prison by the United States for drug trafficking and later released and exchanged for political prisoners.
In his book “April 30, the day Nicolás Maduro could fall”, General Cristopher Figuera defines Cilia Flores as the woman who commands the most in Venezuela over her husband. “She is ambitious, fearsome, powerful, controlling and she orders those who criticize her to be imprisoned,” he describes. She is also in the US sanctioned list.
The maneuver of the Venezuelan presidential couple to put the CNE at their service to anchor themselves in power after 24 years recalls the manual of the couple Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo in Nicaragua, which also they radicalized when they saw that they could be defeated by the rise of the opposition.
The electoral move does not help Maduro’s attempts to whitewash his authoritarian regime and improve his image before the international community either.
It also removes the possibilities of resuming the negotiations with the opposition in Mexico and could nullify the commitment of the agreements signed in November of last year.
the opposition unites
What is clear is that the maneuver made the opposition parties, which had been divided, unite in the primaries around the main objective of removing Maduro from power through the presidential elections next year.
The president of the opposition’s National Commission for Primaries, Jesús María Casal, confirmed that the opposition’s primary election will be self-managed.
“This requires all of our time and all of our dedication, that is the only way in which the self-managed primary can be successful,” said Casal, stating that the effort is gigantic to obtain the support of polling stations, financing and training in the manual electoral system.
All the applicants now support the self-management and autonomy of the October primaries. The big question is whether the unity around the opposition presidential candidate will be maintained for the 2024 elections. The other unknown is whether Maduro advances the elections.
The Chavista regime will seek to divide the opposition so that several candidates run for the presidential elections and disqualify the one that results in the primaries to disperse the votes.
María Corina Machado is the favorite in the polls and has become an electoral phenomenon. Her campaign is sweeping. Crowds follow her on her journey. She has promised that she will go all the way with or without the CNE, “we are going to win and collect”. The regime knows that, which is why she tries to disable her.
The Republican senator for the state of Texas, in the United States, Ted Cruz, warned that whoever is willing to harm María Corina Machado could be held responsible by Washington. In addition, he said that the leader has the ability to face the dictator Maduro.
“María Corina Machado can defeat the Maduro regime and the thugs of the regime know it. The friends of the Venezuelan people who are pending the elections also know it,” he said on his Twitter account.
Then, he added: “The United States has the tools to hold accountable those who target it.”
Caracas, special
CB
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