Venezuelan opposition chooses Edmundo González Urrutia as consensus candidate

This Friday night, the Venezuelan opposition chose as the consensus candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, a diplomat who was once ambassador to Argentina and Algeria. Manuel Rosales, governor of Zulia state, was to be elected, but he did not have the support of the rest of the parties forming the unitary platform. However, González Urrutia had the direct support of María Corina Machado, the main leader of the opposition disqualified by consensus and Chavismo. The diplomat protested. Receiving such an assignment was not in his plans, but eventually he agreed and from now on he has become the main rival of Nicolas Maduro for the presidential elections on July 28.

Rosales also eventually gave him his support. “Good news for the Venezuelan people: the Democratic Unitary Platform has unanimously approved the candidacy of Ambassador Edmundo González Urrutia as unity candidate, supported by all factors of the platform. A high-level, respectful debate followed, in which leaders such as María Corina Machado and Manuel Rosales participated. We have come to the conclusion that this is a historic decision for Venezuelan democracy: we have chosen the next President of the Republic, who will be elected on July 28,” Omar Barboza, secretary general of Rosales’ party, said at the end of the meeting.

The opposition has been forced to seek alternative candidates to María Corina Machado, who won the primary election with more than two million votes. Forces critical of Chavismo had several open fronts on the electoral path and continued unitary candidacies. Among the politicians who managed to escape, at least three alternatives were considered: that of Rosales, that of Enrique Márquez, who had defected from the ranks of Rosales’s own party, and that of González Urrutia, who was a temporary nominee to be called Unitary. Managed to manage the stage. Register in Extreme. Now it is not so. In other contests in the past, the opposition has faced defeat due to lack of unity, but this time it seems that they have found the path of unity. In other scenarios where Chavismo has manipulated elections into a risky move, the opposition has opted to abstain from voting or exert internal and external pressure to accelerate change. This time, when 85% of the country wants political change and Maduro is at his worst, different sectors seem to be focused on competition even though the situation is changing.

A few weeks earlier, Machado had named a substitute to represent him in the race. It was Corina Yoris, an 80-year-old academic and Real Madrid fan, who was supported by the parties integrated into the Unitary Platform. Despite attempts to negotiate the removal of the disqualification imposed without a trial and unconstitutionally, the leader was forced to momentarily concede his claim, name his replacement, and remain in the game. But Chavismo also prevented Yoris from registering during the application round. In an extension of the deadline, this allowed the opposition to register diplomat González Urrutia, who agreed to register provisionally, so that the card of the Democratic Unity Table, which represents the opposition, would not be missed.

In addition to González Urrutia, in the long twilight of the deadline to register applications, leader Enrique Márquez, former rector of the CNE, also managed to enter the electoral body’s elusive electronic platform. Marquez has tried to get the support of Presidents Gustavo Petro and Lula da Silva and today he met with Colombia’s ambassador to Caracas, Milton Rengifo. At the end of the period it was also revealed that he was able to give his name to Rosales, a negotiator and liberal politician who reconciled his coexistence as governor of the state of Zulia with Chavismo, a former presidential candidate with current ambitions Is. “I am optimistic, we are thinking about the future of Venezuela. In the greater Venezuela,” he said before entering the unitary forum and the long-awaited meeting with Machado.

Having a guaranteed spot on the card means the opposition can move forward in a variety of scenarios for negotiations. Maduro and Chavismo in power know how to throw bait to divide the opposition, an archipelago of parties that have clashed on several occasions in recent years in a strategy to resist the steamroller of the most authoritarian Chavismo. The meeting this afternoon did not take place without prior work to build an agreement between the 10 parties of the Unitary Platform, among which Primero Justicia, Acrion Democrático, Voluntad Popular and Un Nuevo Tiempo, to which Rosales belongs, have greater importance. Most agreed that it should be González Urrutia, but he refused for weeks. At last he has agreed to this mandate.

As the elections have progressed, González Urrutia will need Machado to bolster his political capital and this has been taken for granted. Alone, none of them would have been able to muster the support to defeat Maduro. This step that the opposition has just taken does not prevent Chavismo from putting forward any other pieces to disrupt the consensus. González Urrutia himself could be disqualified by the electoral system controlled by the ruling party.

Those will not be the last hours on the way to the presidential election. The Maduro government, which sat in Barbados and signed agreements to guarantee fair elections in exchange for a partial relaxation of Washington’s oil sanctions, has reversed its intentions and contrary to commitments to maintain an atmosphere of dialogue and peace. Legal action has been taken against opponents and human rights activists. The sanctions relief valve has been partially closed this week. The United States, which has finally managed to maneuver to move the board in Venezuela, has decided not to renew the licenses with which the government allows to resume trade with foreign oil companies and to allow the export of crude oil freely. Was able to sell effectively. But Washington has not returned to the position of maximum pressure that it had previously maintained. Companies that are doing business with PDVSA still have a month and a half to cease operations and the possibility of issuing specific licenses for each case is open. This leaves the door open for continuing the conversation. And all this conversation, of course, is going to revolve right now on Maduro’s challenger, Gonzalez Urrutia. We will have to wait and see what happens in the next few days.

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