Last updated: June 10, 2024 at 18:58 pmNicolas Maduro holds up a small statue of Venezuelan military general, Simon Bolivar, who led the revolutionary wars to free Venezuela of Spanish Colonial rule, during one of his elections campaigns in Venezuela
Venezuela’s national presidential election is set to be held on the 28th of July, 2024 as Venezuelans head to the polls to decide the future of a currently troubled nation. For nearly 24 years, the Chavista political movement, founded by the late Hugo Chavez and upheld by Nicolas Maduro, has maintained a stranglehold on the country of Venezuela through rigged elections, political persecution, and widespread corruption. Maduro claimed victory at the polls in 2018, but many believe the elections were rigged. On July 28th, 2024, the United Socialist Party led by Nicolas Maduro will have to fight much harder to remain in power.
The Chavista Political Movement, referred to in Venezuela as “Chavismo,” is a failed, racist political movement which showers its supporters with welfare and handouts leading the country to economic stagnation and bankruptcy. Further, through corrupt practices, the movement has made millionaires out of many of its top politicians and military leaders. Leaders and supporters of the Chavista Political Movement are called “Chavistas.” Maduro, the second Chavista leader of Venezuela, taking over from founder Hugo Chavez, after whom the political movement derived its name, may very well be the last of the Chavistas.
The opposition coalition, the Unitary Platform, led by former lawmaker Maria Corina Machado, poses the greatest threat to Nicolas Maduro’s United Socialist Party. There will be 9 other opposition political parties, but the Unitary Platform Coalition, of which Maria Corina’s “Vente Venezuela” forms the chief member, is the strongest opposition political party in Venezuela, and the only one of which Maduro is truly afraid.
Nicolas Maduro has tried unsuccessfully in the past to frustrate his main political rival, Maria Corina Machado, out of the elections race. First, he had the country’s top court ban her from running for political office for 15 years. Maria appointed a substitute to run in her place whom Maduro also banned. Finally, Maria Corina Machado appointed Edmundo Gonzalez Urratia, to be the presidential candidate for the Unitary Platform.
Presidential Candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urratia will hopefully unseat Nicolas Maduro this July 28th and give the country of Venezuela a new lease on life. Since taking the reins of power in 2013, Nicolas Maduro has overseen economic decline and hyperinflation which plunged millions of Venezuelans into poverty and sent over 7.7 million of them fleeing to foreign shores.
If Nicolas Maduro manages to rig this year’s election, he will have another 6 years in office as elections in Venezuela are held every six years. But can the country of Venezuela survive another six years of Chavista rule? Most likely not. The people of Venezuela might not take things so easy this time around. Desperate people take desperate measures. Despite Maduro’s stranglehold on the Venezuelan military which he has used to cling to power, the people of Venezuela are determined to end Chavismo in Venezuela. Hopefully, Nicolas Maduro will be the last of the Chavistas.
