Conservative candidate Maria Machado has been prohibited from running in the 2024 Venezuelan presidential election. The news comes from Venezuelan Comptroller General’s June 27 statement alleging corruption and prohibiting her from running for office for 15 years. Click here to read the public statement.
Previously Machado had been barred from holding public office in 2015 after allegedly being unable to disclose the entirety of her earnings during her time as a congresswoman. An accusation that Machado denies.
Current Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has a history of not letting opposing sides run for office. In 2018, his administration was anointed with being responsible for a “presidential crisis,” where the political parties ‘Justice First,’ ‘Popular Will,’ and ‘Democratic Action,’ were prohibited from running. This then led to Maduro retaining his position and prompted many to call his reign an illegitimate presidency.
After the Comptroller General’s statement was released on June 27, the EU and the U.S. denounced the action. Releasing their statements against the current administration, threatening stricter sanctions on Venezuela - aiming to constrict their oil industry. To this, Maduro said, “They want to sow the deadly poison of fascism, of hatred, of confrontation among everyone, through social media, paying millions to sow hatred, to try to put their claws on our country and hand it over to the US empire and to the old European racists and colonialists” he stated on his weekly televised show.
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