The campaign period for Venezuela’s presidential elections came to a close on July 25. The presidential candidate and current president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), held massive rallies in Maracaibo, Zulia and the country’s capital Caracas, where the sectors of chavismo showed their enormous capacity to mobilize hundreds of thousands of sympathizers.
In Caracas, unions and organizations filled several major streets and avenues downtown such as Francisco Solano, Francisco de Miranda, Los Caobos, and Bolivar Avenue, gathering around smaller stages where political and social leaders spoke to the massive crowds to emphasize the importance of Sunday’s elections. However, the main event was at the end of Bolívar Avenue where Maduro addressed hundreds of thousands of supporters to discuss the major challenges facing the country in the upcoming elections.
??From the streets of Caracas, Peoples Dispatch editor Zoe Alexandra reports on the upcoming elections in Venezuela on Sunday and the situation in the South American country.
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First of all, Maduro highlighted the importance of the economic recovery in Venezuela over the last several years, overcoming the more than 900 of economic sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union. Maduro described these sanctions against Venezuela as “the most criminal aggression that has been made against us in history. We defeated the sanctions and the blockade, and what we are going for is upwards, for economic prosperity, but for that, we need peace and stability.”
Secondly, Maduro highlighted the importance of the political unity that the Grand Patriotic Pole (the electoral coalition that groups the pro-Chávez forces) has achieved during these last months. This also accounts for the solid political structure led by the PSUV. In this respect, Maduro said, “We have constituted a new social and cultural political majority that will be expressed as a resounding electoral majority on Sunday, July 28.” In addition, Maduro emphasized that his administration is the continuation of the administration of Hugo Chávez, whom he remembered as the great initiator of the turn to progressivism experienced by Latin America at the beginning of the XX century, “The spring era would not have existed in Latin America if there had not been a Commander, father, and teacher, Hugo Chávez Frías,” said Maduro.
On the other hand, Maduro sought to differentiate himself from his main opponent, Edmundo González, highlighting his popular origin, his leftist political militancy, and his experience in several workers’ political organizations: “I became Bolivarian. I was formed in the streets and the neighborhoods. My school and my university was in the factories of Caracas, in my work as a bus driver.”
Finally, Maduro emphasized that his candidacy does not correspond to an individual desire, but rather to the political proposal of a larger collective, which he categorized as “the people”. In this sense, Maduro emphasized that, since his candidacy is that of the people, he is the candidate who will be able to guarantee peace, since the people seek tranquility and social harmony “I have no ego, I have no attachment to anything, I have not been nor am I anyone’s puppet; I am a independent president; I am of the people. I know how to work as a team and collectively. First I hear and look to the people before I take a step. I do not owe favors to anyone nor am I afraid of anyone: and that makes me free.”
It is important to highlight that, despite an international media campaign against his candidacy, Maduro affirmed that the Chavista forces will not initiate any confrontation. On the contrary, opposition forces have threatened to disrupt the country’s peace, stressed the Venezuelan president. Hence, a good part of his speech was focused on calling for national unity through a “great national dialogue” which, according to Maduro, he will convene the day after the elections.
Read more: Mainstream media scales up attacks against Maduro ahead of Sunday’s elections
The right-wing opposition candidate Edmundo González rallied alongside María Corina Machado and several thousand sympathizers in the upper-class La Mercedes neighborhood of Caracas. The media outlet ABC International spoke to one of the people gathered in La Mercedes who traveled from Miami to vote in Sunday’s electoral process who told them, “I have been waiting for this for 25 years [Chávez won the presidential elections 25 years ago.].”
