Henrique Capriles will be the Primero Justicia (PJ) candidate in the October primaries. This was confirmed today by the president of the centrist party, María Beatriz Martínez, who announced during a radio interview that there is a "consensus" in the PJ board of directors after sweeping the former presidential candidate in the regional committees last weekend.
"The consultation was of such magnitude and forcefulness that it is evident that the entire process of the regulation, prioritizing consensus, was given by the party. The consensus belongs to the party. It is obvious," said Martínez, who announced that this nomination will materialize in the national political committee next week.
The former governor of Miranda prevailed over his two internal rivals by triumphing in 17 states and abroad, compared to the five states obtained by former legislative vice president Juan Pablo Guanipa and the only one achieved by Carlos Ocariz, former mayor of Petare, one of the largest favelas in Latin America.
PJ had designed a complex mechanism to choose his candidate, which added the polls to the results of the regional committees to end up in a consensus with his leadership. In the polls that have been published so far, Capriles' advantage was also evident. In the last one carried out by Delphos, who valued all the opposition candidates, whoever was a rival of Hugo Chávez was 13 points ahead of Ocariz. Datanálisis has also noticed how Capriles, who represents the traditional leadership of the opposition, has grown in support in recent weeks.
The circumstance occurs that Chavismo maintains the disqualification against Capriles, which would prevent him from participating, for the moment, in the presidential elections next year. "It is a violation of the political rights of Venezuelans, not just Capriles. Everyone here is disqualified. This is a fundamental point of the fight and the discussion that we have to give. If Maduro is forced to hold democratic elections in 2024, or something that comes close to democracy, has to recognize the right to empower the candidate who wins the primaries," Martínez explained.
Among the favorites to compete for the October primaries are the right-wing María Corina Machado and Governor Manuel Rosales, both disqualified in the past, but who can now run in the elections. In addition to Capriles, Juan Guaidó, who will shortly run as a standard-bearer for Voluntad Popular (VP), the party of former political prisoner Leopoldo López, is currently disqualified. The other major candidate in contention is the outsider Benjamín Rausseo, a famous comedian known as El Conde del Guácharo, who is already in the campaign.
The Delphos poll is led by Machado (37%), who benefits from not being part of the opposition leadership, followed by Capriles (17%). Behind them appear Rosales (12%), who maintains a kind of cohabitation with the central power, Rousseo (9%) and Guaidó (9%).
The forceful result of the weekend would have discouraged Guanipa, but Ocariz was reluctant to consider himself a loser, according to political sources consulted by EL MUNDO. Most of the leaders accelerated the consensus process to avoid increasing tensions within the party, whose main leader, Julio Borges, is in exile in Spain.
"Warning, in PJ there is no tension. The party spoke clearly", underlined the deputy José Guerra, one of the main economic experts of the opposition.
In favor of Capriles is the degree of public knowledge and his experience as a candidate against Chavismo, but against him weighs his attitude after the "fraud" that gave Maduro the presidency in 2013. The once again candidate has assured on multiple occasions that he wanted to avoid a civil war as the country was split in half, so he avoided fighting in the streets. Capriles also served as the main instigator to force the disappearance of the presidency in charge.
"There goes Capriles, he says that he is going to be a presidential candidate and that now he is going to win the elections. Caprilito, Caprilito, stop whimsy!" Nicolás Maduro frivolized during one of his constant public appearances.
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