Venezuela’s self-described socialist government is facing a serious electoral challenge in a presidential election for the first time in decades.
President Nicolás Maduro, now in his 11th year in office, is being challenged by former diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia at the head of a resurgent opposition, as well as a field of eight other candidates. The official campaign period for the July 28 election kicked off Thursday.
Maduro, who has presided over an economic collapse that has seen millions of people emigrate, and his United Socialist Party of Venezuela have fended off challenges by barring rivals from elections and painting them as out-of-touch elitists in league with foreign powers.
This time, he promised to let the Unitary Platform opposition coalition participate in the election in a deal that brought his government some relief from crippling economic sanctions imposed by the United States. That respite, however, was short-lived as the U.S. reimposed sanctions amid mounting government actions against the opposition, including blocking the candidacy of opposition powerhouse María Corina Machado.
Here’s what to know about Venezuela’s upcoming presidential election.
The most talked-about name in the race is not on the ballot: María Corina Machado, a former lawmaker, emerged as an opposition star in 2023, filling the void left when a previous generation of opposition leaders went into exile. Her principled attacks on government corruption and mismanagement rallied millions of Venezuelans to vote for her in the opposition´s October primary.
But Maduro’s government declared the primary was against the law and opened criminal investigations against some of its organizers. Since then, it has issued warrants for a number of Machado’s supporters and arrested some members of her staff, and the country’s top court affirmed a decision to keep her off the ballot.
Yet, she kept on campaigning, holding rallies across the country and turning the ban on her candidacy into a symbol of the loss of rights and humiliations that many voters have felt for over a decade.
She has thrown her support behind Edmundo González Urrutia, a former ambassador who’s never held public office, helping a fractious opposition unify behind him.
They are campaigning together promising an economy that will lure back the millions of Venezuelans who have migrated since Maduro became president in 2013. On Thursday, the bus that was set to move Machado and González throughout a section of Caracas was temporarily stopped by law enforcement with both standing on a platform affixed to the vehicle. The officers argued the stop was a routine procedure to verify the validity of the driver’s documents.
People gathered at the opposition’s march marking the official start to the campaign chanted “Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!” and “And it will fall, and it will fall, this government is going to fall.” They waved Venezuelan flags as they awaited the duo´s arrival while motorists joined them honking their horns.
