• Polls show Machado has 75% of support ahead of Oct. 22 vote
• Primaries on thin ice after opposition rejected govt. support

Andreina Itriago Acosta, Bloomberg News

CARACAS
EnergiesNet.com 10 06 2023

Venezuela’s most popular opposition leader kept supporters waiting for four hours on Thursday while she negotiated the obstacle course set up for her by the government. 

María Corina Machado needed three different cars to make it through the military roadblocks and pro-regime protests barring her way to Valencia, roughly 100 miles west of the capital, on her campaign ahead of this month’s opposition primaries.

To avoid a blocked road near the town of Mariara, Machado, wearing a white blouse and wedge sneakers, jumped out of one car and climbed through piles of trash and rocks under a bridge, to reach a connecting highway where another car was waiting for her. 

As she walked along the blocked road in the boiling heat, dozens of supporters got out of their cars and walked out of their homes in a show of support. Machado repeated the maneuver later in the journey to skirt yet another blocked road.

The rally was also complicated by a power failure at party headquarters, where she was going to hold a press conference, forcing a change of venue, and then by another at the rally location where her campaign had a backup generator.

Polls show Machado heading for a landslide win come Oct. 22, with about 75% of support from those highly likely to cast their ballots. Yet, Machado has been officially barred from running and the primaries are on thin ice after the opposition rejected technical support from the government, risking a chaotic vote and a possible court battle.

President Nicolás Maduro is trying to convince outsiders that the 2024 presidential elections will be well run, after the US said it may ease crippling economic sanctions if the vote is fair. 

Still, international observers have yet to be invited and attacks on political groups and civic organizations have intensified ahead of presidential elections scheduled for 2024, according to a recent United Nations’ report. Maduro’s government has continued to repress political groups, union leaders, and civic and human rights organizations, the UN’s Independent Fact-Finding Mission said. 

“There is not obstacle, threat or attack that can stop this force that is growing each day,” Machado told a meeting with women at auditorium ahead of the rally.

In Valencia, along its main street, hundreds had gathered in the heat to hear Machado speak. As she spoke, one woman fainted while her supporters punctuated her remarks with cries of “until the end,” “we’re not afraid,” “this government is going to fall.”

“They really thought that blocking the ways, cutting the electricity we would not come, that we would get back?” Machado asked her supporters, who screamed back “no.” in response. “They just don’t get this country has changed.”

bloomberg.com 10 06 2023