the journalist Sebastiana Barraez reported last week on Carla Angola’s program, Aló, Buenas Noches, that “Nicolás Maduro has already stated that he would be the presidential candidate of Chavismo in 2024,” a decision that would have triggered intrigues within the United Socialist Party of Venezuela. Likewise, Barráez affirmed that, according to an intelligence report, Rafael Ramírez, president of Petróleos de Venezuela in the period 2004-2013, “leads a movement from abroad with several self-styled Chavistas from abroad to remove Maduro from power.”
Chávez’s successor has betrayed the principles and foundations of the Bolivarian revolution: sovereignty and social justice.
Lunch with Cilia at celebrity chef Salt Bae’s restaurant in Istanbul, Turkey, he revealed to the world his taste for delicacies and luxuries. On that occasion he exclaimed: “This is only once in a lifetime, right?” Five months had passed since his manipulated re-election for 6 more years (May 2018), an electoral process that was unknown by more than 50 democratic countries.
The former Metrobús driver no longer governs for the people but for his own elite (oligarchs), who have enriched themselves by looting the country. And national sovereignty does not exist. He has facilitated the Somalization of Venezuela and has committed crimes against humanity to continue exercising de facto power.
Carlos Hurtadoformer national coordinator of the Socialist Middle Class and former member of the Great Patriotic Pole, stated five months ago that “Maduro has neither the strength nor the support to impose his candidacy and, in fact, the process in the International Criminal Court for crimes of against humanity during his administration could disable him.”
Likewise, a parish leader of the PSUV, who preferred to omit his name, told the digital media Cocuyo effect that within the red political teams in the communities, the need for a replacement “to save Chavismo” has begun to be raised, that is, that in 2024 a different candidate be presented by the party in the face of the evident “national rejection” to Maduro’s administration.
Barráez, in the interview with Carla Angola, also expressed that Maduro’s great enemy for 2024 is internal, within the PSUV. He is in the groups that defend the Bolivarian, Chavista revolution. For this reason, Superbigote has started a witch hunt against “the revolutionary Bolívar and Zamora current, as well as the persecution of leaders of the old left, Red Flag, Chavismo and the Socialist League.”
He knows that in order to achieve a third six-year term (2024-2030) he must end between this year and the next with “the Chavista revolutionaries” who oppose his re-election. For this, the Cuban intelligence apparatus is key, as it has been in dismantling saber rattling. To such an extent that today the majority of political prisoners are military (54%), according to the Report on Political Repression in Venezuela, First Semester 2022, of Penal Forum.
Furthermore, the military threat posed by Diosdado Cabello has been downplayed. Their class of 1987 was transferred to the active reserve – as retired soldiers are called – in 2020, when they could occupy positions in the Military High Command. Because in previous years, Ripe “It had extended the activity of some of the most prominent or loyal to the revolution, mainly if they belonged to the 4F movement.” This year again slows down the progress of a promotion close to God given hair ―that of his brother José David Cabello in 1993―, whom he tries to stop in his ascent to positions of higher hierarchy.
After nine years, Maduro is sure that the Armed Forces can no longer do anything against him, it is controlled. For this reason, he has decided to delegate his responsibility as commander in chief to Vladimir Padrino López, who had to retire eight years ago. The Minister of Defense has lost leadership within the FANB. “It neither smells nor stinks,” according to military sources.
On the other hand, Maduro does not see a threat in the democratic opposition. He managed to neutralize it by establishing direct communication with the Biden administration, through Juan González, senior director of the National Security Council for the Western Hemisphere, and Jimmy Story, ambassador to Venezuela. This allowed him to control the agenda of normalization and cohabitation. He manipulates with the negotiating table in Mexico. And the 2024 presidential election, he says, will be free, fair and competitive as long as it ensures a victory.
Let’s not forget that today Fedecamaras shares Maduro’s economic vision: Special Economic Zones, privatization of PDVSA ―return of the transnational oil companies―, free import of merchandise, partial dollarization of the economy, transfer of confiscated assets and empowerment of a new elite economic, among others.
In view of the above, the only political threat that Maduro has for 2024 is “the revolution within the revolution.” Barráez said that the colectivos – paramilitary groups of the Bolivarian revolution – are not with the head of the PSUV. “They are responding to other sectors of the revolution.” Likewise, he pointed out that the officials of the 4F movement, both abroad and within the country, are working so that whoever has betrayed the legacy of Chávez does not remain in power.
Maduro knows this and that is why he does not expose himself to activities in open spaces. He is confident that he will subdue them, as he did with the FANB and the opposition. He needs to be the candidate and win the elections in 2024 with the support of the PSUV base and the popular vote. Only the cohesion of the internal sectors of Chavismo acting at the level of international and internal justice could prevent it.
