At an intersection packed in four directions, rallygoers scream and light up cellphones in the evening as Venezuelan opposition figure Maria Corina Machado climbs onto a flatbed truck like a presidential candidate. She has been barred from the July 28 election. Still, she crisscrosses the country, shaking hands, taking selfies, blowing kisses and promising the defeat of President Nicolas Maduro \u2013 all as a surrogate for a quiet former diplomat who has not yet begun to campaign. \u201cMar\u00eda Corina! Mar\u00eda Corina!\u201d the people yell, sometimes in unison, in the small Andean foothill town of Sabana de Mendoza. Their cheers are deafening.<\/p>\n
Machado\u2019s challenge is whether she can translate her fame and charisma into votes for Edmundo Gonz\u00e1lez Urrutia, who was chosen by the chief opposition coalition after Machado was unable to overcome a ruling blocking her candidacy. \u201cI don\u2019t remember what his name is,\u201d seamstress Danis Cegarra, 48, said of Gonz\u00e1lez while she waited with her two children for Machado. \u201cAlthough we don\u2019t know much about him, we are going to support him. Well, I am going to support him, because I want a change above all because I have children.\u201d Gonz\u00e1lez is the third candidate that the Unitary Platform opposition coalition has promoted as its own this year.<\/p>\n
Machado, a former lawmaker, entered 2024 as the group\u2019s candidate after easily winning an October presidential primary, but a top court loyal to Venezuela\u2019s ruling party affirmed an administrative decision to ban her from office. She appointed a substitute in March, former academic Corina Yoris, who also was barred. Four days later, the coalition picked Gonz\u00e1lez. Machado, a free-market proponent who has been campaigning for more than a year, is now introduced as \u201copposition leader\u201d instead of candidate at her rallies. Gonz\u00e1lez, 74, has yet to step onto a stage with her, or alone. \u201cHe seems to be a very quiet, consensus-based diplomat. Mar\u00eda Corina is out there on the stump fire breathing,\u201d said Ryan Berg, director of the Americas Programme at the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies.<\/p>\n
\u201cHer job is to bring out people to vote for Edmundo, but it will be interesting to see what he\u2019s like if he ever goes out there because it\u2019s going to be quite a character mismatch to see him next to her.\u201d Gonz\u00e1lez began his career as an aide to Venezuela\u2019s ambassador in the US in the late 1970s. He had postings in Belgium and El Salvador and served as Caracas\u2019 ambassador to Algeria. His last post was as ambassador to Argentina during the first years of the presidency of Hugo Ch\u00e1vez, who came to power in 1999 and transformed Venezuela with socialist policies like nationalizing industries and launching welfare programmes. Ch\u00e1vez handpicked Maduro to replace him before dying of cancer in 2013.<\/p>\n
More recently, Gonz\u00e1lez worked as an international relations consultant and wrote a historical work on Venezuela during World War II. He plans to launch his campaign this week. He told The Associated Press last week he expects various opposition leaders to become his surrogates. In Sabana de Mendoza, about two and half hours after Machado was scheduled to appear on a recent weekday, she delivered a fiery 20-minute, yes-we-can speech from the truck\u2019s roof. She spent one of those minutes talking about Gonz\u00e1lez.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis community is going to elect this person, Edmundo Gonz\u00e1lez Urrutia, our candidate for the presidency,\u201d Machado said while holding a banner with Gonz\u00e1lez\u2019s headshot. \u201cHe is a good man; he is an honest man. I ask all of you, who have accompanied me and have given me your trust and affection, that we vote firmly and safely for a man who will do a great job.\u201d Machado has not only helped to unify the fractured, personality-driven opposition, her campaigning has drawn the attention \u2013 and rivalry \u2013 of the ruling party.<\/p>\n
At least twice in the past month, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela has held rallies on the same day and the same community where Machado was expected to address supporters. Gonz\u00e1lez\u2019s headshot will appear three times in the July 28 ballot, one for each party he will officially represent. Meanwhile, the headshot of Maduro, who is seeking a third term, will appear 13 times. Maduro\u2019s 11-year presidency has been marked by a social, political and economic crisis that obliterated the middle class, pushed millions into poverty and turned some government allies into millionaires. Under his watch, more than 7.7 million Venezuelans have abandoned their homeland, settling primarily in Latin America and Caribbean countries.<\/p>\n
The effects of the crisis are evident along a country road that leads to Sabana de Mendoza. Abandoned homes and businesses stretch for several hundred metres. Shuttered gas stations are rusting. People fan themselves because there is no electricity for an air cooler. Herm\u00f3genes Alvarado, 56, an unemployed truck driver, said he will vote for \u201cthe other\u201d candidate, Gonz\u00e1lez, even if he knows next to nothing about him. He said he thinks anyone other than Maduro will bring back jobs to his community.<\/p>\n
But next to Alvarado while waiting for a gas station to open, Moises Mendoza, 29, said he is not so certain about Machado\u2019s replacement. The maker of maracas, hammocks and ceramics does not see his vote as automatically transferable. For him, staying home on Election Day is an option. \u201cI don\u2019t know who Edmundo is, and I imagine that people with the opposition are going to support him to be able to remove this government,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cIf he doesn\u2019t convince me, I won\u2019t vote.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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