Good old Maria Corina Machado. Today she was not allowed to register her candidacy due to the government’s push to have her barred from public office. So, instead, she announced that her replacement candidate would be Sociologist Isabel Pereira. I didn’t know much about Pereira before today, but from the looks of it, she brings…
CC commenter Syd asked this question in the previous post: “Does Maria Corina Machado lead a political party?” The answer is both yes and no. Confused? Then, allow me to explain. It does exist, but isn’t allowed yet to participate in any election (at least on its own). Why? Well… it’s a long story. Two…
(Una entrevista exclusiva con Caracas Chronicles) En la Quinta El Bejucal de Altamira todo es movimiento. La casa es de esas típicas quintas de los años cuarenta o cincuenta que recuerdan a una Venezuela que ya no existe – espacios amplios que integran la vegetación tropical a la casa, y que permiten que entre la…
Yesterday, Maria Corina Machado offered a press conference to react to the Comptroller-General’s decision to bar her from holding public office for 12 months, which would leave her out of December 6th’s legislative election. Machado said that the formal reason given for her punishment is that she failed to declare her CestaTickets (a kind of private food-stamp often included…
Maria Corina Machado received today this paper from the Comptroller-General’s office, informing her that she’s declared ineligible to hold any public post for the next twelve months, therefore barring her of running in the December 6th legislative election. The picture of the document’s first page doesn’t say the specific reasons of why she has been…
Chavismo’s animus against Maria Corina Machado, the leading democracy activist who was indicted on trumped-up charges of “conspiracy” today, has reached farcical extremes. Today, attention was focused on whether she would be jailed – she won’t be quite yet. Nonetheless, the torrent of abuse she’s faced these last few years is extraordinary. Consider. Since 2010, María Corina Machado has been…
Opposition legislator Maria Corina Machado will go to the Prosecutor’s Office today to be charged with attempting to kill Nicolás Maduro. She may be imprisoned today. We’ll be live blogging the events as they unfold. Three quick things to start: Her team has put together a list of all the attacks on Maria Corina through the years. It’s…
This is the first promotional video I see for the upcoming Congreso Ciudadano. Whatever your opinion on the initiative, this is no two-bit, one-person show. Lilian Tintori, Gaby Arellano, Antonio Ledezma, Maria Corina, Smolansky, Nitu, and music by Los Amigos Invisibles … this group can be many things, but they are not irrelevant. In fact, they…
Imagine the scene at the Dallas Police Station, November 22nd, 1963. A man is captured in a movie theater and brought into custody, a man named Lee Harvey Oswald. The President of the United States has been murdered a few miles away. Imagine then, in this parallel universe, the Dallas police department deciding that Oswald can go home. In…
Yesterday Henrique Capriles also shut the door on the idea of a Constitutional Assembly, or even the resignation of Nicolás Maduro, a man he used to claim “stole an election.” Basically, he said that without a new CNE, the Constituyente was a no-go, and that Maduro wasn’t going to resign anyway, so there was no point…
Last night, Venezuela’s Supreme Tribunal said that, indeed, Maria Corina Machado’s expulsion from the National Assembly could stand. On its own, this shouldn’t seem so shocking – chavismo has created a habit of kicking people out of Parliament, out of city hall, and out of politics altogether. But Maria Corina is no Richard Mardo, and she…
Ahhh…the lazy days of Venezuelan summer. Perfect for strolling through streets perfumed of sun-ripened mangoes, whistling to the Efe ice cream song on balmy Friday afternoons…and, if you’re Diosdado Cabello, trying your hand at some good old political persecution. With two weeks left before the National Assembly goes on summer recess, MUD politicians busy figuring out…
Over at Foreign Policy’s Transitions blog, I discuss the opposition’s new diplomatic offensive. The value added: These trips are part of a new phase for the Venezuelan opposition. For the first time, they are embarking on a serious diplomatic offensive. The opposition believes that international pressure is the only thing the government will respond to,…
I’m sitting in a small conference room in e basement of a. Santiago hotel. A delicate breakfast is placed before me, and thirty people are gathered for an intimate conference on Venezuela. The attendees include former Chilean Cabinet members, members of the military, and powerful businessmen. The air is staid and the coffee may be bland,…
María Corina Machado says she can bring down crime in six months. “We have the will, the knowledge, the resources, and the experience,” to launch an all-out assault on small-time drug trafficking to achieve this, she says. Really, María Corina? You really think you can train more cops, train more prosecutors, train more judges, train…
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