The president of Venezuela, Nicolas Madurowhom most observers and supporters see as a candidate for a third term in 2024, insisted this Monday in a televised interview that he does not know if he will compete in those elections.
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“It’s still premature. The year is just beginning. Only God knows… No Diosdado (Hair), God. Let’s hope that the electoral scenarios are defined (…), I am sure that, with God’s blessing, we will make the best decision,” Maduro told the Telesur channel, in a play on words between God and the name of former vice president Diosdado Cabello. considered the number two of Chavismo.
Cabello, current vice president of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), has already said on several occasions that this political movement considers Ripe as your candidate.
It is expected that on a date to be set in the second half of 2024, the official candidate will face the former deputy Maria Corina Machadowho won the opposition primaries and managed to bring together the majority of his figures.
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Machado is currently under political disqualification, although the leader has filed an appeal before the Supreme Court of Justice within the framework of the negotiations between the government and the opposition.
Machado was sanctioned with 15 years of ineligibility for alleged corruption and treason after having supported the sanctions imposed by United States to Venezuela.
Washington has reiterated that the cancellation of Machado’s disability is one of the conditions for the definitive lifting of sanctions.
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During the Interview, Ripe He also assured that businessman Alex Saab, released by the United States before Christmas, is not his “front man,” as Washington points out.
“I’ve never had a front man! I have never had a bank account abroad. I have never had companies or properties, nor do I want to have them in my life, ever…,” he noted. “My relationships with national and international businessmen have been and are work relationships for the country.”
Saab, Maduro’s key man and described as the brain of Venezuela’s financial transactions abroad, is accused by the US justice system of setting up a system of diverting food aid for the benefit of Maduro and his government.
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He was released in early December in a prisoner exchange with Caracasafter being arrested in June 2020 during a technical stopover in Cape Verde and extradited in October 2021 to the United States, where he was accused of money laundering.
– Essequibo –
Ripe He also referred to the territorial dispute over Essequibo with the neighboring Guyana: “We are going through a time of turbulence. Because Guyana is acting not like the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, Guyana is acting like ‘British Guyana’, accepting that a warship goes to its coasts and from its coasts threatens Venezuela.”
Venezuela launched military exercises with more than 5,000 soldiers near the border at the end of December, after announcing the arrival of a British warship in Guyanese waters.
Tensions between Caracas and Georgetown increased after Guyana launched oil tenders in September and Venezuela held a referendum in response to a proposed annexation of Essequibo, a 160,000 km2 territory rich in oil and natural resources administered by Georgetown and claimed by Venezuela.
President Ripe and his Guyanese counterpart, Irfaan Ali, pledged in a meeting on December 14 not to use force, but both countries have remained firm.
