The Woman Not on the Ballot
Venezuela holds elections Sunday. Polls show that the opposition is poised to end the country's quarter century strongman rule. The force behind it: María Corina Machado.
Happy birthday Jessica! And all of you Leos out there we won’t get to shout out in August, including all the amazing women at Feminist Foreign Policy Collaborative!
This is our last newsletter for the summer. We’ll be back after Labor Day. Have a safe rest of summer. 😎🏖🍦
Yes, Team Interruptrr is thrilled that Kamala is the leading candidate on the Democratic ticket. And while the temptation to pile onto the many perspectives about her and her ascension is great…. including the tragic reality that her veep pick has to be a white man, because the US is still a white patriarchy where women need male approval…. We’re going to focus on Venezuela.
Venezuelans go to the polls on Sunday, in an election that might actually oust a quarter of a century of strongman rule. The force behind this development is…. A woman! This week, Fabiana Perera takes the pen, writing about María Corina Machado and putting Venezuelan politics into perspective. Fabi is an Interruptrr fellow and a Senior Faculty Associate at the Defense Security Cooperation University. Thank you Fabi.
Also, meow. 🐈
On Sunday, July 28 Venezuelans will vote for a new president. Though this would be almost unremarkable in a functioning democracy, it is noteworthy in Venezuela. Since 1999, a strongman has helmed the country. Hugo Chávez catapulted to power in February that year, ushering in chavismo as the former president’s governing style is known. Chavismo started out as left-wing Latin American populism and devolved into left-wing Latin American autocracy of the 21st century.
Following his death in 2013, his hand tapped successor, Nicolás Maduro has run the country, in the same heavy-handed way. On Sunday, however, Venezuelans may well vote him out, as the outcome is uncertain — despite Maduro’s best efforts to ensure the outcome. Venezuela joined Cuba as the only “Not Free” country in the Americas in 2017, in the middle of Maduro’s first term in office.
On Sunday Maduro will appear on the ballot along with another man, Edmundo González. But it is who is not on the ballot that is significant: María Corina Machado. Machado is the leader of the Venezuelan opposition. She won the Democratic Unity Roundtable’s primary elections, held in October of last year. Close to 2.4 million Venezuelans participated in the opposition primaries and 93 percent voted for her. Her appeal did not go unnoticed or unpunished by the Maduro regime: Machado was barred from running in the election. The regime-controlled supreme tribunal in the country upheld the ban after she won.
The ban did nothing to diminish Machado’s popularity and, in fact, might have backfired. Machado is more popular than ever and has used every strategy to ensure that the opposition she represents is included on the ballot. After exhausting her legal appeals, Machado named a successor. She chose Dr. Corina Yoris, a philosophy professor at a private university in Caracas with little political experience. Maduro’s regime barred Yoris from registering as a candidate. With only a few weeks left to find an alternative, the opposition landed on González.
González is a 74-year-old, retired diplomat. He is not a young activist as so many previous candidates have been, but a grandfather who seems happy to play a supporting role. That is what makes Maduro nervous.
Though she does not appear on the ballot, Machado has continued to campaign energetically throughout Venezuela. She has called on Venezuelans to show up on July 28 to vote and energetically asserted that only “huge fraud” can stop an opposition victory. A recent poll found that among those likely to vote, 56 percent planned to vote for González and 33 percent for Maduro. If the election does indeed favor the opposition, Gonzalez will be elected president.
It’s what happens after that where it gets interesting.
Gonzalez might hold the title of president, but it is likely that Machado would be the force behind the proverbial throne. That’s one scenario. Another is González could find an institutional way to hand the presidency to Machado. This could include calling for a constitutional referendum followed by new elections. It’s exactly what Chávez and his chavismo did back in the early aughts. If González does this, Machado would become Venezuela’s first female president. More importantly, it would offer the country a way to reset back to democracy.
Venezuela’s transition back to democracy would be something to celebrate far and wide. The country was for decades a beacon of representative government in the region. Over the past two-and-a-half decades, it has slipped into authoritarian rule, rupturing its relationships with its neighbors, particularly the United States. The return of democracy to Venezuela would be a clear example of what civil society can accomplish and of the power of international democratic pressure. It would bring with it hope that the same can happen in other countries in which people live under the oppression of an authoritarian regime. —- Fabiana
Fabiana Sofia Perera is an Interruptrr Fellow and senior faculty associate at Defense Security Cooperation University.
The views expressed in this article are those solely of the author and do not reflect the policy or views of the Defense Security Cooperation University or Department of Defense.
I’m opening up my column to others. Please pitch me your op-ed idea/perspective. Let’s get more female perspectives. Email me on endeavoringe@gmail.com or respond to this post.
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Venezuela elections
As Fabi notes above, despite her popularity, María Corina Machado, was banned from running as the opposition candidate. What’s worse is that on July 3, the US restarted talks with the Maduro government, likely, as Kristina Foltz notes, with the hope of reopening the Venezuelan oil industry. Machado and her opposition party was not notified or included in these discussions. If the US is serious about democracy, appeasing Maduro is not the way to go, she writes. (Newsweek)
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Europe
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Opportunities
The Paris Review is hiring for a Senior Editor.
In DC, Counterpart International is hiring for a Director of Gender Equality and Social Inclusion.
Habitat for Humanity is hiring for a CEO.
Wanna work at the World Bank? Its Junior Associate Program is now open.
Editorial Team
Elmira Bayrasli - Editor-in-Chief
Editors:
Pin-Shan Lai
Catherine Lovizio
Emily Smith
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