María Corina Machado: The regime wants to compete with false opposition candidates chosen by Maduro's leadership

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado denounced on Sunday new maneuvers of the Chavista regime to manipulate the presidential elections scheduled for July 28.

Through her social networks, the national coordinator of the Vente Venezuela party insisted on defending her candidacy for the electoral process.

“I want to convey to you all my strength and my conviction that the destiny of this fight will be the freedom of Venezuela and the return of our children and grandchildren to our homes. "We are living in very delicate hours in which the regime has increased its usual weapons—lies, violence and fear to demoralize us and defocus us from our tasks,” said Machado.

The opposition asked Venezuelans to evaluate the achievements they have achieved so far.

“We have built an unprecedented social movement, with a candidacy popularly legitimized in the heroic primaries of October 22 and politically recognized nationally and internationally,” she said.

“We have achieved the support of all the parties and social movements that genuinely want change, that have been integrated into all the campaign commands inside and outside the country, I thank you all for your trust, we are advancing in the construction of the 600K platform, the most robust structure that has existed in Venezuela to defend each vote, to defend your vote,” he added.

In that sense, Machado assured that the regime is committing serious violations to prevent its participation in the elections, canceling the cards of the parties and movements that support it and imposing an electoral calendar that denies the right to register to all new voters and to the Venezuelans who are abroad.

For the opposition, “the regime wants to compete with falsely opposition candidates chosen by the Miraflores leadership,” she charged

“We are going to free elections and Maduro boycotts them. We travel a peaceful route and Maduro provokes violence. We propose a serious negotiation for a transition with guarantees and Maduro refuses. While the regime sells hopelessness, we have a route, a future that also includes them. What is Maduro afraid of? Maduro is afraid of the overwhelming will of the country that wants change, to live in peace,” she asserted.

Son días desafiantes.
Avancemos con firmeza y serenidad. pic.twitter.com/oSU4seamMA

— María Corina Machado (@MariaCorinaYA) March 18, 2024

The National Electoral Council (CNE) of Venezuela announced at the beginning of the month that the presidential elections will be held on July 28, the day of Hugo Chávez's birth.

The president of the CNE, Elvis Amoroso, said in a press conference that the board of directors of that organization "unanimously" approved the date of the elections in the second half of the year, as agreed between the Nicolás Maduro regime and the opposition in a negotiation table.

The period for nominations will be between March 21 and 25, and the electoral campaign will take place between July 4 and 25, Amoroso said.

Electoral registration will close in April, which calls into question the participation of the almost five million voters abroad and the three million new voters who have not yet registered in the country.