Cowards and Cheaters: Maduro regime runs scared, bans top opposition candidate from elections

The Venezuelan regime of Nicolas Maduro has barred a popular candidate to win the opposition’s presidential nomination from holding office for 15 years, according to the country’s controller general. 

Maria Corina Machado, 55, has been leading the polls for an October primary that aims to pick an opposition candidate to face Maduro in the 2024 presidential elections. 

According to the country’s controller, Machado has supported sanctions by the United States on the Maduro government and previously backed former opposition leader Juan Guado, making her ineligible to hold office. Machado was previously banned from office for 12 months in 2015 and has been barred from leaving the country for the past nine years. 

The opposition claims that such a move is a way for the ruling party to control the elections and prevent any political change from taking place in the country. 

"A ban by the regime is garbage, it means zero," Machado said on Thursday. “It only shows one thing: they know they’re defeated.”

Despite the ban, Machado can still run in the October primary, since it is being held by the opposition without any support from the Maduro regime. However, if she were to be elected as the opposition candidate, the ban would prohibit her from registering to appear on the ballots for the presidential race. 

The U.S. State Department and the Organization of American States (OAS) criticized the regime’s decision to bar Machado from the elections, claiming that the government was interfering with free and transparent elections. 

"Today’s decision to disqualify Maria Corina Machado from participating in the electoral process deprives the Venezuelan people of basic political rights. Venezuelans deserve the right to select a candidate to participate in presidential elections in 2024 without interference," a U.S. State Department spokesman said in a statement.

"The regime resorts to disqualifications and proscriptions to cling to power and liquidate any likeness to democracy while it deepens the political, social, humanitarian, and economic crisis the country is living in," the OAS said in a statement.