Photo courtesy of Carlos Díaz via Wikimedia Commons.
Maria Corina Machado won the presidential primary in the Venezuelan elections on Oct. 26, 2023.
By Kiera McLaughlin ’26
Global Editor
Content warning: This article discusses gendered violence, sexual violence and state-sanctioned violence.
In the face of Venezuela’s first opposition primary election in 11 years, the United States made a deal with Venezuela that involved lifting sanctions on oil exports.
This deal demanded a fair election for opposing parties, but sitting President Nicolás Maduro refused. However, on Oct. 26, 2023, María Corina Machado was declared the winner of the presidential primary election, Reuters reported. According to Al Jazeera, the former lawmaker will be running against current President Maduro in a general election in late 2024.
Despite winning the primary, Machado has been banned from running for office since June 2023. According to BBC News, the Comptroller General, Elvis Amoroso, banned her for 15 years due to alleged corruption, although he did not provide evidence of said corruption. The Venezuelan Attorney General also launched a criminal investigation into the commission of the primary election on Oct. 25, Reuters reported.
Machado confirmed that she will be on the presidential ballot in an address to her supporters on Monday, Oct. 23, PBS reported. “What awaits us is an arduous road; we know it. We are all very clear about the nature of the regime we face, and this primary full of obstacles and challenges proved it,” she declared. “[But] the bigger the obstacles they put in front of us, the bigger we get because we are going to overcome all obstacles.”
According to PBS, there were many obstacles that Machado supporters had to conquer in order to properly vote. The voter turnout, despite weather conditions and repression, demonstrated a commitment to a change in leadership. Organizers of the primary election added that due to internet censorship, the results took longer to count.
Jesús María Casal, the head of the National Primary Commission, said that the “server that functioned as a transmission channel was blocked, preventing us from completing this process as scheduled,” PBS reported.
In an interview with the Mount Holyoke News, Javier Corrales, professor of political science at Amherst College, said that while he hopes Venezuela will get past the current administrative corruption, he does not think there will ever be fair elections.
Corrales explained that the Venezuelan government “has demonstrated that it's not interested in free and fair elections” and that the administration will not “compete with anybody who has a minimum chance of being a real electoral contender.”
This election comes at a time of increased economic instability throughout the country. According to AP News, Venezuela’s economy improved greatly between 2014 and 2021, leading some Venezuelans to return from taking refuge in other Latin American countries. However, these conditions have worsened since the COVID-19 pandemic.
In April 2022, the average monthly pay was 130 bolivares, which was previously equivalent to approximately $30, but people are now only being paid the equivalent of around $3.70 a month, AP News reported.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, over 7.7 million people have left Venezuela, 6.5 million of whom have found refuge in other Latin American countries.
There has also been an increase in Venezuelan migrants relocating to the United States. AP News reported that over the last 11 months, there have been more than 199,500 Venezuelans crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. This is an upsurge compared to the 2,700 people who crossed the border in 2020.
In anticipation of the 2024 election, the U.N. has issued statements and statistics about the human rights violations in Venezuela, AP News reported. This research declared that between January 2020 and August 2023, there were 14 short-term disappearances and 58 arbitrary detentions in the country, along with 28 torture or cruel treatment cases — the latter of which included 19 reports of sexual and gender-based violence.
According to PBS, Patricia Tappatá Valdez, a member of the U.N. fact-finding mission that compiled these statistics, said that “by criminalizing participation in legitimate activities, the government is silencing and creating a chilling effect on anyone who might consider participating in any activity that could be perceived as critical of the government.”
Recently, a new deal between the United States and Venezuela is intended to expand the Venezuelan economy by lifting U.S. sanctions on oil. Through a license from the U.S. Treasury Department, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries can produce and export oil from Venezuela to its choice of markets for six months without restrictions, Reuters reported. By opening the global oil market to Venezuela, the United States hopes that this will provide aid in light of sanctions on Russia.
Additionally, this deal requires Venezuela to lift the bans on the opposition party to have a proper democratic election and for the government to release American political prisoners, according to Reuters. U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that the United States has been “consistent with our long-standing commitment to provide U.S. sanctions relief in response to concrete steps towards competitive elections and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.”
When asked about whether or not this deal with the United States would improve the Venezuelan economy, Corrales said, “Venezuela's economy is in such bad shape that any new funds that you pump into the economy [are] going to be better than not having it.”
He did stress, however, that he does not trust the Venezuelan government with the funds. He explained that the government will act as it has in the past with funding by “supporting its supporters, period, and making sure that anybody else doesn't get enough.”
In addition to these lifted sanctions, the U.N. has approved humanitarian funds for Venezuela to help finance initiatives related to health, education, food security and electricity, The New Humanitarian reported. $3 billion in Venezuelan assets are currently frozen by sanctions, and while not all of that money will be available, it is now estimated that approximately $600 million could be unfrozen.
According to BBC News, while the ban on her ability to hold office has still not been lifted, Machado is hopeful in her statements. After her declaration of victory in the primary election, she said, “From tonight, we begin a great movement for a great national alliance for the transformation of Venezuela.” However, as AP News reports, some question the ability of Machado’s victory to remain uncontested by the current government. As Geoff Ramsey, senior analyst on Venezuela at the Atlantic Council, explained, “The opposition will have to come together around the winning candidate after the primary, but also be prepared for the likely possibility that the government will veto that candidate.” He went on to add that they should plan to use another candidate to eventually change the administration.
The Guardian reported that this possibility became more probable when the Venezuelan Supreme Court suspended the primary results on Oct. 30. This decision is also a violation of the agreement made between the United States and Venezuela for oil sanctions to be lifted, Ramsey highlighted.
“[President] Maduro’s acting like he doesn’t care about the prospect that the US could snap back the sanctions,” the senior analyst explained to The Guardian.