Maduro turns to Chávez’s son-in-law to recover the Barinas fiefdom

Nicolás Maduro looks like a double for Daniel Ortega. It is no discovery. They are both dictators. One in Venezuela and the other in Nicaragua. Both violate human rights and use power as if they were the absolute masters of the will of their citizens. Maduro wanted to wash his tyrant face to look like a true democrat in the November 21 regional elections. He accepted international missions to attest to the freedom that the country lives.

He won almost everything. They only lost the governments of Zulia, Cojedes and Nova Esparta: 3 out of 23. But they did not have a fourth defeat, Barinas, dominated by the Hugo Chávez family since 1998. And there their democracy collapsed and the tyrant’s whip appeared. He annulled the elections, called others for January 9 and acted as Ortega: he disqualified the candidate who had already won three more. And to Zulia, so that it does not grow any more, it took control of tolls and the airport.

The regionals, on paper, had to represent the beginning of a new history of Venezuela, especially after the dialogues in Mexico between the regime and the opposition represented by Juan Guaidó. Maduro demanded the lifting of sanctions and Guaidó an electoral schedule with serious guarantees. However, the opposition thought more about the presidential elections next year and came to the regional elections divided.

It was known that Maduro would win almost all the governorships and mayors, as it happened. The surprise, however, occurred in Barinas and also in the ranks of the one so far considered by more than fifty countries as the leader of the interim Government of Venezuela: Guaidó. In the so-called marquise city, which has a million inhabitants, the candidate of the MUD (Table of Democratic Unity), Freddy Superlano, was not afraid to confront the Chávez family and launched a serious challenge that achieved significant support in the capital. of the plains, the main economic and cultural center of the area and under the slogans of “Unity”, “Barinas says the Chávez out” and “We are not afraid!” He defeated Argenís Chávez, who had been ruling for four years. The previous eight years had been his brother Adam and from 1998 to 2008 Commander Hugo Chávez.

The National Electoral Center, which seemed to have autonomy on this occasion, recognized Superlano’s victory, but a week later, the Superior Court of Justice ordered the repetition of the elections in Barinas after receiving a constitutional protection action filed by Adolfo Superlano, that he does not have any family ties with Freddy, who alleged that the violation of constitutional rights had occurred because the winner did not have to appear as he was disqualified. One of the agreements of the dialogues in Mexico, says Freddy Superlano, allowed him to participate.

The commander’s son-in-law

Given the resignation of Argenís Chávez to repeat the candidacy on January 9, Maduro has appointed Jorge Arreaza, who was Hugo Chávez’s son-in-law, and whom they say neither lives nor votes in Barinas. The report of the European Union mission pointed out at the end that in Venezuela there are not enough electoral guarantees, neither judicial independence and the rule of law is not respected.

But not everything was more discrediting for the Maduro regime. The regionals also had negative effects on the hitherto leader of the opposition, Juan Guaidó. One of his trusted men and with much credibility, Julio Borges, resigned to continue as chancellor of the interim government. He was not left alone in a resignation. Borges also attacked. He said he was resigning due to the lack of a road map, unity and strategy. He asked for the notion of ‘interim government’ to disappear, which he accused of trying to perpetuate itself. He pointed out that the world had left the case of Venezuela on the refrigerator because too many mistakes had been made and there had been no transparency in the money managed: “We need an internal space for mobilization,” Borges concluded. The distancing with Guaidó had also occurred on the part of María Corina Machado and Henrique Capriles, also important members of the opposition to Maduro.