Six National Assembly Deputies were elected mayors in last Sunday’s election (five from the MUD and one from the PSUV).
But two of those victories will now cost the opposition its seat in Zulia State’s 11th circuit. But why, you might ask?
Because both MPs (main deputy Mervin Méndez and his substitute Ender Pino) were elected as mayors of Lagunillas and Bachaquero, both located in oil-rich Eastern Shore of Lake Maracaibo. Way to go, guys!
There’s still hope to recover the seat, as the current legislation allows a special election in this kind of cases. Pero del dicho al hecho…
In the remaining cases, either their substitutes will take the seat or the main deputies will be left without any replacement. The AN’s new count is 99 for Chavismo, 65 for the MUD.
Caracas Chronicles 
It’s telling how many MPs ran for mayor around the country – 12 out of MUD’s 66 deputies were out trying to book a ticket out of the AN! Shows a seat in congress is seen as a poor substitute for any kind of executive post, no matter how low-level, for someone trying to super-size his political career.
And it figures: you can’t run a patronage network worth a damn from an office in Pajaritos. There’s just no budget in it…
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The number is much higher than 12, actually. These 12 are the ones who got MUD nomination for Mayor.
The number of MUD congresspeople who wanted to use their seat as a stepping stone for executive office includes several who were unsuccessful in getting the nomination for President, Governor and Mayor. If I were to throw a number I’d say it may be around 20, maybe more.
Five more of the top of my head: There is J.C. Caldera who won and lost it to Ruperti-gate (whose main contender was now turncoat William Ojeda), Enrique Mendoza who lost the primary for Miranda, MCM who lost the primary for the presidential ticket, PJ’s Tomás Guanipa whose aspirations for Maracaibo were cut short by UNT’s hold in Zulia. I’m sure there are a few others around.
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Just to correct, which was interested in PJ for mayor of Maracaibo was Juan Pablo Guanipa, BROTHER of Tomás Guanipa. A note of a maracucho.
It will be interesting to see the stampede of the AN deputies just the first Capriles government is formed after the democratic revolution to overthrow this regime (that the crisis is coming, it’s just a matter of time). The fight for the MUD Ministries is epic … We start from and to forward names?
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Thanks!
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The reality is that who cares about the National Assembly??. I only like the National Assembly, when not one single person from the PSUV nor the MUD is walking in its corridors (with a few exceptions of course)
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Still, they’re making a big disservice to their constituents.
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Indeed. It’s not just a disservice. In my book they should be chained and thrown to a jail in Acarigua.
Seriously: even if the PSUV has taken over the National Assembly, these guys should do something: make noise there, give interviews all the time around the AN, talk about concrete proposals for education (it seems in Venezuela you need to be a low level teacher to be interested in such things) and protest about the incoming education law, anything!
They are also telling us they think no one else from the opposition is competent in their local feud to do that job. They are a shame, they are selfish bastards.
Ni lavan ni prestan la batea.
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Everybody want’s to be a Cacique, nobody wants to be an indian.
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http://www.ultimasnoticias.com.ve/noticias/actualidad/politica/pendiente-eleccion-de-un-diputado-a-la-an.aspx
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why blame them? no one want to be acoñazeado in the AN building by some chavist gorilla http://www.ultimasnoticias.com.ve/noticias/actualidad/politica/fotos-y-video—se-armo-trifulca-en-la-asamblea-na.aspx
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You can have two, three, four deputies, get them spend 4 days going through education material, reading the “draft” on the new education program for primary and secondary, elaborate a report and then call the international press and then the national one to explain why that is a disaster and to explain what they – we – propose. You can have them then go around the country from time to time explaining their ideas.
It is not about commissions to try to pass a law at the AN!
We know we won’t get anything pass there! But we need to 1) avoid giving the regime the absolute majority (now they will go for more, be prepared) and 2) use every venue to communicate with the people. The status of deputy might only give a nice salary for Venezuelan standards (and not contracts as a mayor) but it should mean something!
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On that note, it’s been a while since MUD proposes any bill for parliament.
Even if they have 0% chance of being passed, it would show what MUD is about. One of the campaing proposals was Ley Candado (Lockpad Bill), which was supposed to rein in on subsidies to other countries. There are several more laws these 65 people and their substitutes could be drafting and proposing before the public.
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I think they’re more useful as mayors actually doing things in key municipalities and building opposition base than as deputies only talking few times a year, though I do agree that they shouldn’t have run for congress if they intended to run for mayor later.
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They were infamously beat up in April 2013.
They all ran for mayor, governor or president in February 2012.
So that’s definitely NOT why they ran.
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BTW, Michael Reyes (the PSUV deputy involved in the incident) was elected as Mayor of Villa de Cura. Enough said.
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Mi representative in the national assembly, deputy Miguel Cocchiola (Ind-Carab-3) was elected mayor of Valencia. I hope he does much more as mayor than as an AN Deputy, given that the opposition in the AN can’t do much.
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