Maria Corina Machado calls on Venezuelans to vote for freedom

Ian Vasquez

Venezuelans will overwhelmingly vote against President Nicolas Maduro in Sunday’s presidential election, polls show, posing the biggest threat to his regime’s survival so far. No one expects Maduro to accept the results, but no one knows how things will turn out either.

After many years of an ineffective and internally divided opposition, the person who managed to unite Venezuelans under one ballot was Maria Corina Machado, one of the most admirable political leaders in the world. Although she won the opposition primary with over 90% of the vote, her name did not appear on the ballot. Sensing her vulnerability, the regime disqualified her candidacy. Machado then selflessly supported Edmundo Gonzalez and organized massive rallies across the country as part of her campaign to support Gonzalez and restore freedom to Venezuela.

Machado has no illusions that Sunday’s vote will be free and fair, as she explained in a speech at our recent conference in Buenos Aires, “The Renaissance of Freedom in Argentina and Beyond,” which is well worth watching. Machado is appealing because she represents a clear set of values—those of liberal democracy—and has become the epitome of dignity and courage in the face of adversity and threats to her life and safety.

Venezuelans remember, for example, the year she was a congresswoman when she called Hugo Chavez a thief on national television and challenged him to explain his disastrous record. They also remember how a Chavista broke her nose during an attack on Congress the following year. Last year’s campaign was even more difficult, with many members of her team kidnapped or arrested or forced to seek refuge abroad.

Over her many years of activism and political engagement, her message has been consistent and clear. At a Cato-hosted policy forum in 2009, for example, she explained how Chávez’s social policies were failing to achieve their supposed goals and why socialist policies would not work. Venezuelans have heard her stick to her principled message of market democracy and limited power over the years, which has also strengthened her credibility as the country’s economic, social, and political crisis deepens.

Maria Corina Machado’s success in uniting her country against tyranny is already considerable. Whatever the outcome, the regime and its legitimacy will already be weakened.