I haven’t written about Venezuela for a while, mainly because after the Juan Guaidó fiascos the Maduro dictatorship just went on pillaging the country as he and Chávez had been doing for the previous two decades. The situation appeared hopeless and, frankly, I lost heart. I became more preoccupied with my own country and its (right wing) version of populism with Donald Trump. But I also avoided writing about that since he’d already gotten more publicity than he deserved.
But then Maria Corina Machado handily won the primaries for the opposition last October and it looked like she’d be ready to go up against Maduro. My friend and co-director Arturo Albarrán arrived from Venezuela in January and our discussions reignited my love and concern for the state of the country. And the situation there is again critical.
I should have known better than to believe Maduro would allow any viable candidate to run against him. He hasn’t in the past. Predictably, he violated the Barbados Agreement just a few months after signing it, and disqualified or “inhabilitó” Maria Corina Machado. But the opposition had a plan B and selected Corina Yoris, an Andres Bello University professor with two doctorates (one in history, and one in philosophy). But Maduro quickly had the National Electoral Council website shut down and wouldn’t allow the professor to register before the deadline. Then an oppositionist (Edmundo González Urrutia) managed to squeak in and register his candidacy. That’s the latest in the ongoing drama leading up to the July 28th presidential elections this year.
That’s the background to my piece on Maria Corina Machado published at Caracas Chronicles.