In this Sunday’s primary elections, supporters of Venezuela’s main opposition parties chose the candidate of the Wente Venezuela party.Maria Corina Machado as her “single” candidate against Chavismo before the 2024 presidential elections.

“Today the democratic forces have achieved their goal: our single candidate Maria Corina Machado, who will represent us in the presidential elections and this will be the example of our every step until we consolidate political change. United, we will change Venezuela. An image of unity, strength and joy,” the Democratic Unitarian Platform posted on its social media account X (formerly Twitter).

Minutes after declaring his victory, Machado pledged that he would remove President Nicolas Maduro from power in 2024. “In 2024, we are going to win this presidential election. We are going to round up and evict Nicolás Maduro and his regime. and we are going to start rebuilding our nation,” the 56-year-old politician said in her first speech as anti-Chavismo standard-bearer for elections in the second half of next year, still without a specific date. .

“Venezuela has destroyed all barriers and It was a civil avalanche it united our country,” he said of the primary, in which he received 93.13% of the vote (more than 500 thousand), according to the first official ballot, based on 26.06% of the votes counted.

However, in July this year, the Comptroller General of the Republic announced that the suspension imposed on Machado in 2015, which was then reported to last one year, would be extended until 2030, so The former deputy will not be able to hold elected positions, unless the sanction is lifted.

The controller disqualified her for actions that “attack public ethics, administrative morality, rule of law, peace and sovereignty Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.”

He will be able to participate in the 2024 elections only if he reaches agreement with the government regarding his disqualification.

Machado was expelled in 2014. parliamentafter speaking as Panama’s alternate ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), where she condemned the government’s crackdown on protests at the time.

That same year, he was banned from leaving the country due to an alleged assassination attempt on the former president. Hugo Chavez.

Dr. Danivel Zovatto, regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean at the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), noted in an information card sent Aristegui Newss that the primaries were held “after Nicolás Maduro’s government and the opposition agreed this week in Barbados to respect the constitutional calendar and hold presidential elections in the second half of 2024.”

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This is just a day after The US eased sanctions on the oil and gas sector for six months, “Which will only expand if Maduro continues to take steps to restore democracy in the country and allows an opposition candidate to truly challenge him for power,” he notes.

(according to information from EFE, Europa Press and Aristegui News)