Maria Corina Machado: We are going to a new phase that I call the swarm strategy

In interview In a meeting with the directors of the media of the Rebel Alliance Investigates (ARI), opposition leader María Corina Machado stated that the strategy of demoralizing the people with the forced exile in Spain of the candidate of the Democratic Unitary Platform did not work out well for Maduro’s government. She indicated that it no longer makes sense to demand the minutes of June 28 from the CNE because they are not going to deliver them and that in her opinion the process of transition to democracy in Venezuela has already begun. However, no one knows when this can be achieved.

For opposition leader María Corina Machado, the departure of presidential candidate Edmundo González Urrutia from Venezuela to Spain was a move planned by Nicolás Maduro’s regime that ultimately did not have the desired result.

“The shot backfired, because it was Jorge Rodríguez himself who revealed the evidence of blackmail, an issue that has generated worldwide condemnation. It is unprecedented for an elected president to have been threatened within a diplomatic mission.”

Machado participated this Wednesday, September 25, in a new edition of La Conversa de la Rebel Alliance Investigates (ARI) made up of Runrun.es, El Pitazo and SuchWhichwhere he said that with the exile of Edmundo González the Maduro government sought to demoralize Venezuelans.

“Edmundo informed me of the decision he had made a few hours earlier and I told him that it was all part of a plot by the regime that simultaneously threatened the members of Vente Venezuela who are taking refuge in the Argentine embassy in Caracas.”

Machado said that former Spanish president Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero did not help Gonzalez Urrutia. “Zapatero made that move against the Venezuelans, just as he has done with other political prisoners. In the end, the strategy worked for us because Edmundo is supporting the international struggle and I am here inside doing the work.”

The “swarm” phase

María Corina Machado says that after the wave of repression unleashed by the government of Nicolás Maduro, following the citizen protests of July 29 and 30 due to the announcement of the results of the presidential election by the National Electoral Council (CNE), People are “regrouping and returning” to their areas of influence, their homes and communities, the places where the electoral victory was forged.

Two days before the presidential election, and with the CNE still not publishing the results broken down by polling station and voting center on its website, which is still not working, the majority opposition is planning a national and international mobilization on Saturday, September 28, in which, according to Machado, there will be a demonstration of the new phase of citizen pressure.

“People are regrouping and returning for the relaunch of a new stage. I have been in contact with the teams and I am proud of their resilience and courage. This Saturday the 28th is going to be a demonstration of that,” said Machado in the space of La Conversa, in charge of El Pitazo, Runrunes and SuchWhich.

The opposition leader is aware of the challenges posed by the reality of the political conflict and the post-electoral situation in Venezuela, convinced of an unprecedented electoral victory over the ruling party, as reflected in the vote counting records compiled by the opposition’s electoral witnesses. The challenge within Venezuela is how to re-energize citizen mobilization, despite fear and government repression.

“The mobilization of the people, the visibility of our victory, is important (…) What about the internal mobilization? We are entering a new phase and we have won this with strategy and discipline; it is a phase that I call the swarm strategy: it is not huge concentrations called in advance, but a decentralized and coordinated structure with an incredible organization that we have built in these 18 months,” added Machado.

The opposition leader maintains that the strategy she is leading is “robust” and shows that in the new phase of struggle and resistance of the majority opposition, inside and outside Venezuela, the persistence in the organization evident on July 28, but worked on and fine-tuned during the previous months, is key.

“Everyone organizes themselves in their own area, as was the logic of the commandos. There are two options here: you can have one rally with 50,000 people or you can have 1,000 rallies with 50 people. Which one is more powerful, which one penetrates into the bowels of the country? “We don’t have to prove that we are the majority, we just have to be effective in applying citizen pressure where we need to apply it, and that is what this new phase is about,” Machado explained.

For Machado, amid the dynamics outside Venezuela that include the exile of former presidential candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, the complex process of pressure to raise the costs of Maduro remaining in power is one that “involves everyone” inside and outside the country. “It is individual responsibility.”

“We have a structure that has an entrance throughout Venezuela and there is citizen organization and people know how to communicate, how to take care of themselves and how to put pressure; they know where to do it, how to do it and when to do it. This is being done and will be done more and more in a coordinated and organized manner. It is the swarm phase and it is what we are going to start carrying out publicly starting this Saturday,” he said.

Transition underway, but no date set

For Machado, it no longer makes sense to demand from the National Electoral Council (CNE) the voting records from July 28. “Because we know they won’t give them and the reason is that they are the same records that we have.”

The opposition leader stated that Maduro himself knows that he has 90% of the Venezuelan population against him. “We won 70-30, I can’t imagine if people outside Venezuela would have voted. It was a demonstration of the will to change after a totally organic and epic campaign, the Chavistas themselves know that the defeat was massive and that this is unsustainable.”

According to Machado, the process of transition to democracy in Venezuela has already begun, but he does not know when it will occur.

“We are experiencing a changing and complex dynamic. We have a robust strategy that we have followed with discipline. The regime will sit down to negotiate when the cost of staying is higher than the cost of leaving. We have not reached that point, but we are moving in the right direction.”

Machado said that there are political factors that have resisted change because it would mean modifying the status quo, however, after the behavior of Chavismo since June 28, some members of other candidates and of the government itself have approached him. “Maduro is becoming more toxic and isolated every day,” he said.

He said that despite the repression, people have regrouped to claim the results obtained in the last elections.

“All of us who had some kind of responsibility in the campaign are sheltered, imprisoned, or exiled, however I am proud of the resilience of the people, there is not one who has not told me that they are not willing to give it a go, and this Saturday, September 28th, will be proof of that.”

Machado dismissed the idea that all members of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB), the police and state agencies are willing to attack their compatriots.

“It is not true that soldiers and police want to shoot people, it is not true that most prosecutors want to put teenagers in jail for the simple fact of setting a status on WhatsApp. Every time Maduro attacks people he sinks further, that is a sign of weakness, the regime only sustains itself with its apparatus of repression, but that repressive structure begins to fall apart when they see themselves pointed out by international justice.”

The opposition leader said that outside of Venezuela, governments ideologically similar to Maduro’s have turned their backs on him. “This has become a fight that transcends doctrine, from Gabriel Boric in Chile to Javier Milei in Argentina, there are 27 European countries aligned, President Gustavo Petro in Colombia indicated that he would consider the Senate’s proposal to recognize EGU as president, everyone is pushing in the same direction, some more strongly than others.”

He defined the internal strategy that is coming as that of the swarm. “Outside Venezuela we have almost a quarter of the country’s population and inside everyone is organized around circles of trust, they are not huge concentrations but organized structures that include 60 thousand commanders.”

He said that the objective is clear from now on: “We do not have to prove that we are the majority, what we have to do is be effective in enforcing the will of the citizens of July 28.”

She said that despite being protected and having colleagues imprisoned and exiled, she feels supported.

“I am going through a difficult time right now. A person I love very much is very sick and I feel like my heart is breaking, but that person is happy where I am. In the last few months I have been surrounded by thousands of people and going from that to going days without seeing anyone is a discovery. I miss direct contact, but I have the love of many through technology.”