However, the regime maneuvers to show the world the holding of elections that it has been shaping to suit its purposes, while observing the growing popular support for the candidate of the Unitary Platform, Edmundo González Urrutia. The standard bearer of the democratic opposition was chosen after the disqualification of the leader María Corina Machado, winner of the 2023 primaries and the impediment to the registration as a candidate of Dr. Corina Yoris, who had previously been selected by consensus of the platform unitary.
In the current context, there are possibilities that the elections will be suspended, says General Antonio Rivero, a retired Venezuelan Army soldier and political exile.
In his opinion, security and defense reasons, especially the territorial controversy between Venezuela and Guyana over the Essequibo territory, would be the argument that Chavismo could use to cancel the elections.
“I have pointed out, for months, that the conflict between Venezuela and Guyana marks a feasibility scenario to suspend the elections. Any military action, border skirmish, is in the environment of being able to be generated from Venezuela, beyond the definitive confrontation with the United Kingdom that would support Guyana, the United States or any other country,” he indicated. Rivero in an interview given to DIARIO LAS AM͉RICAS.
He adds that any intervention would generate a situation of international conflict “which would lead to the regime's main purpose of suspending the elections.”
On April 8, Venezuela presented its arguments before the United Nations International Court of Justice in The Hague in defense of the ownership of the Essequibo territory that it has disputed for decades with Guyana. Previously, the Maduro regime included the 160,000 hectares of jungle in the official maps of the country and the Organic Law for the Defense of Guayana Esequiba was promulgated.
“I have information about high-level or high-level active military personnel. that it is feasible: this is moving to suspend the elections,†General Antonio Rivero insisted.
Maduro seeks to screw himself
The retired military man also asserts that an eventual cancellation of the presidential elections in Venezuela would seek to favor Maduro.
In his opinion, the suspension of elections in Venezuela, under the argument of the controversy with Guyana, would redound in an extension of power and in making decisions that could undermine the political elements of the opposition and generate a very divided national opinion regarding the situation in Essequibo. They are acting in favor of what everyone says: the Essequibo is ours and that it is necessary to claim it; They try to seek an international negotiation or a situation of dialogue. The elections could be suspended and subject to the conclusion of this entire process by Guyana Esequiba.
Likewise, he considers that, within the Venezuelan Armed Forces, beyond the position of the high military commanders, “internally there is a feeling from the point of view of duty.”
“I have modestly been doing this analysis of what it meant for the regime to allow the opposition primaries and the fact that they wanted a participation figure for the consultative referendum on Essequibo, in December 2023. All of this “It is a preparation to counteract what weighs on the regime in an electoral year, taking into consideration that the opposition is focused on the 2024 electoral process,” he points out.
Regarding the fact that the regime has allowed the electoral process to advance, although this does not guarantee that the July 28 elections will take place, Rivero explains: “the regime It has to let the process move forward and may even allow the participation of the candidate Edmundo González Urrutia. But, I don't know from what point of view it could be. The candidate himself, at any time, may have a file filed for some of his dealings with the Unitary Platform. The regime evaluates scenarios.
He also maintains that, given the advance of the opposition on the electoral route, the scenario that is gaining the most strength is the military one.
military loyalty
Regarding the position of the Armed Forces regarding the regime of Nicolás Maduro, General Rivero asserts that loyalty is between 20 and 30%. “This loyalty can be divided into three things: Some are very committed, others are very genuflected, and others are under a mistaken sense of subordination.â€he highlights.
He points out that in the military organization there is an inverted pyramid: The base is at the top. The higher the degree, the greater the commitment and greater subjection.
He adds that the professional troops and the enlisted troops “are the ones that suffer the greatest inclemency of the real conditions of the national situation, for food, for services.”
On the other hand, the retired general refers to the complaints about conspiracies that the regime has made so far in 2024 and the arrests against civilians and soldiers allegedly involved in plans against Nicolás Maduro.
“If the philosophical concept of conspiracy is a crime, in Venezuela there is no conspiracy. What there is is the search to free Venezuela from a mafia, from a group, from a sector that seized power and that, from power, has torn the nation to pieces. And, from that point of view, in the face of any action, as the Liberator said, when tyranny prevails, rebellion becomes law,” he points out.
In this sense, the soldier maintains that there are those who rebel “against some delinquents, some criminals, against full authoritarianism because there is no rule of law.â€
For Rivero, a territory “violated, occupied by foreign antagonistic forces and terrorists, cannot be a sovereign State.”
SPECIAL FOR DIARIO LAS AM͉RICAS/MarÃa Victoria Álvarez
