Opposition primaries in Venezuela depend on the decision of the Supreme Court

Achievement Opposition primaries in Venezuela hang by a threadafter an amparo appeal was filed with the Supreme Court for his suspension, a staunch ally of Nicolás Maduro, on the grounds that already disqualified candidate María Corina Machado, who is leading in the polls, “intends to invite violence” .

This kind of argument would not pass in any higher court, except in the case of Venezuela, where the Supreme Court ruled against the state for 21 years; and presented by Luis Rattiwho describes himself as a “presidential candidate” and “oppositionist” despite being a serious unknown (he has less than a thousand Twitter followers) and was a chavismo union leader until 2016.

“We will intensify the campaign against the primaries, we will expose the process of corruption and lies that serve only for Maria Corina’s chaos (…) Judges must open their eyes to rule this out before 2024,” Ratti pointed out at the door of the court.

The Supreme Court is expected to rule in favor of the amparo introduced by Ratti before the debate between the opposition presidential candidates, which will take place this Wednesday and will include Machado, but not the other candidate who has weight in the polls, Henrique Capriles, who described the applicant for amparo as a “rat” and wondered “What chavista does it belong to the trend, if it belongs to Jorge Rodríguez or Diosdado Cabello?” In addition, he asked the opposition to meet “urgently” to “build alternatives, given the attack on the primaries”.

Judicial suspension of opposition primaries would leave the entire opposition strategy up in the air with a view to 2024, as well as the holding of elections themselves, which in practice would be left to Maduro’s discretion to determine who will be his opponent; something that, according to what the high diplomatic representative of the European Union, Josep Borrell, said in April, would be “unacceptable”.

Machado was disqualified with unconvincing arguments for 15 yearsCapriles came to her defense on Monday, pointing out that he is fighting “for all people to regain their political rights”, since he is also administratively disqualified until 2030.

Meanwhile, Cabello distanced himself from Ratti’s appeal, saying it was an “opposition issue” and reiterated that This one “will not come to power either by fraud or by street”. The Chavista leader has claimed for several weeks, however, that the primaries “will not” (happen), without explaining why.