What Happened Last Week in Venezuela? đ„” MarĂa Corina's Ban Was Ratified
The TSJ ratified Capriles' and Machado's bans, the Barbados Agreement is imploding and the repression waves deepen.
Barbados is imploding
On Friday, the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ) announced the decisions on the bans from running for office appealed by opposition politicians through the mechanism agreed in the Barbados Agreement. Although precautionary protection measures were granted âand acts were even dismissedâ to a group of opposition politicians (Richard Mardo, Pablo PĂ©rez, Leocenis GarcĂa, Daniel Ceballos and Rosa de Scarano) whose bans were lifted, the bans on former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles and the current opposition candidate MarĂa Corina Machado were ratified. The ban of former mayor Enzo Scarano was also ratified. âThe regime decided to end the Barbados agreements,â said Machado, âwhat is not over is our fight to conquer democracy through free and fair elections.
âDespite the serious threats from far-right sectors against the peace of the Republic, the mechanism established within the framework of the Barbados Agreements has been complied with,â said the head of the Chavista negotiation delegation Jorge RodrĂguez, âElections in 2024, rain or shine.â It is likely that Chavismo will insist that the Agreement still stands, fulfilling points such as international observation missions or an electoral schedule.
The ratification of the disqualifications follows a new wave of repression against the opposition and organized civil society. Following NicolĂĄs Maduro's announcement of the creation of Furia Bolivariana, a âcivil-military-police planâ to âconfront conspiracies,â the headquarters of at least seven political parties and several civil associations were vandalized on the morning of January 23. These include the main headquarters of Vente and around six local headquarters, houses of regional opposition activists, the headquarters of the NGO FundaREDES, at least three colleges of engineers and regional headquarters of Primero Justicia, Voluntad Popular, Encuentro Ciudadano, Copei, AcciĂłn DemocrĂĄtica and Un Nuevo Tiempo.
Three regional coordinators and an activist from Vente, MarĂa Corina Machado's party, were also detained in Vargas, Trujillo and Yaracuy. The previous week, a Vente member and union leader was also arrested in Barinas.
The intimidation campaign occurred a day after the Armed Force (FANB) denounced an alleged coup plot called âWhite Braceletâ and issued arrest warrants against a group that includes human rights activist Tamara Suju and journalist Sebastiana Barraez. The government also detained a former officer in TĂĄchira, who âconfessedâ on camera, and allegedly 31 other people involved in five conspiracies. Subsequently, the FANB announced the expulsion of 33 members and Attorney General Tarek W. Saab accused the arrested Vente members of being part of a âterroristâ operation.
Despite the threats and a Chavista counter-demonstration in the same area, MarĂa Corina Machado continued with her rally in Altamira in Caracas, which later had to move to La Castellana, to commemorate January 23 âDemocracy Day in Venezuelaâ Â and present the Grand National Alliance (GANA) that will bring together associations, organizations and parties ahead of this year's elections.
Prosecutor Renny AmundaraĂn and former public defender Adys Salcedo, both accused by human rights groups of previously being part of the state's repressive apparatus, were also arrested for alleged links to â organized crime .â
Faced with the accusations of assassination, one of more than sixty that Chavismo has made in 25 years, RodrĂguez said that he will âgive Gerardo Blyde all the evidence of these conspiracies and I am going to"sit and wait to see what the position of the eight people who signed the [Barbados] agreement will be." He also assured that âthere is no way for this woman [Machado] to be a candidate for anything in any election (âŠ) with sanctions or without sanctions, with opposition or without oppositionâ and assured that Maduro will be the opposition candidate in 2024. Maduro, for his part, said that âtoday the Barbados agreements are mortally wounded. I declare them in intensive care. They stabbed them. They kicked them (âŠ) I hope we can save the Barbados agreements and push, through dialogue, great agreements of national consensus.â
Meanwhile, ambassadors and diplomatic representatives of the European Union (EU) met with representatives of the government and the opposition to review the implementation of the Barbados agreement. The meetings included Vice President Delcy RodrĂguez and her brother Jorge. The European representatives expressed âtheir support for the dialogue process towards fair, transparent and competitive elections for 2024. Likewise, they reiterated their firm support for the implementation of the Barbados Agreements, and their willingness to exchange with the authorities about the organization of a European electoral observation mission,â according to an EU press conference. The United States, for its part, said that âactions that are contrary to the spirit and letter of the Barbados Agreement will have consequences. We urge Maduro and his representatives to abide by what is established in the agreement.â
One day after the US statement and the meetings with the Europeans, the TSJ proceeded with the ratification of the disqualifications of Capriles and Machado.
Prosperi adrift
While Fuerza Vecinal âa party outside the Unitary Platform that requested the suspension of the primaryâ continues to lose dozens of members, Carlos Prosperi denounced in a statement that he was âexcludedâ from AcciĂłn DemocrĂĄtica: the party for which he was a pre-candidate in the opposition primaries until he raised unsubstantiated complaints about fraud before the results. Prosperi proclaimed himself âActive Militant for Reunificationâ of the party, of which he criticized the âelitesâ and âmonarchsâ from Caracas.
Crisis in deep Venezuela
The environmental NGO SOS Orinoco reported a malaria epidemic in Alto Orinoco affecting at least 16 Yanomami communities. According to the NGO, at least 85 indigenous people have died. âThe correlation between malaria and mining is very high,â said SOS Orinoco, âAnd the unacceptable mining in Alto Orinoco, promoted by FANB, is overwhelming.â
Meanwhile, a survey by the NGO Fundaredes found that 34.9% of teachers in border states are leaving school due to low salaries. Currently, border teachers earn between 6 and 15 dollars a month, paid in bolivars.
Transnational justice
Venezuelan human rights activist Lorent Saleh won the lawsuit against the Colombian state. He was arrested in BogotĂĄ in 2014, after fleeing repression in Venezuela, and handed over to officials of the Maduro regime. Saleh was arrested and tortured. Further north, Republican senators asked the American Department of Justice to release the evidence (recordings, reports, interviews, etc.) against Maduroâs recently released crony Alex Saab. In the past, a document that was sealed revealed that Saab had conversations with the DEA between 2018 and 2019.
Less debt for PDVSA
According to data from OPEC and PDVSA, Venezuela finished 2023 with a production of 783,000 bpd. PDVSA's debt was $34,779 million, a decrease of $336 million compared to 2022. Meanwhile, Horacio Velutini will chair the new board of the Caracas Stock Exchange. Velutini belongs to the Anonymous Optimists, a group of pre-Chavismo businessmen who have approached the government to promote the liberalization of the economy.
Recommendations
âThus, contradictorily, the Barbados Agreement acknowledges the lack of electoral guarantees in Venezuela but treats the current Venezuelan discretionary legal framework as that of a liberal democracy. Its institutions hijacked by warring factions of Chavismo, its repeated use of courts to trample on unfavorable electoral results, become âproceduresâ and âlegal norms.ââ, I wrote in my new piece for Caracas Chronicles, âBut the opposition should also not waste the opportunity that the elections could provide, despite the considerable asymmetry of power between the regime and the Unitary Platform.â